Main idea: Four pursuits of a God-honoring marriage.
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Well, we're back to our study of the book of Genesis. This morning, my responsibility is to bring you to chapter two, verses 18 through 25 this is the the genesis of marriage, so to speak, where God defines and expresses His divine design for the institution of marriage. Genesis two verses 18 through 25 I'm going to ask you to stand with me as we read God's word, Genesis two, beginning in verse 18. Then the Lord God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper suitable for him out of the ground. The Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky and brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and whatever the man called a living creature that was its name, the man gave names to all the cattle and to the birds of the sky and to every beast of the field. But for Adam, there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept. Then he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. At that place, the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which he had taken from the man and brought her to the man. The man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh, and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. This is the Word of God. God help us this morning, our our longing, our prayer is that we would be built up in this most precious faith and understand and be enabled by Your grace to live out these ideals for our married life and to understand their application, even to the single ones among us. So help us to that end, we pray God in your name, amen, you may be seated. Well. This passage describes the beginnings, the genesis of marriage, so to speak, a divine institution, if it's properly understood, it's not a social convention, or it's not to be defined by government. God designed marriage. God defines marriage. Only God can properly make the rules and set the guidelines for marriage, and that's what we're going to see in this passage here. It establishes a baseline for for what God has designed, designed and defined the ideals of marriage to be. You know, we live in a world who has kind of hijacked the definition of marriage, right, our government and other governments of the world thinking they can imagine a vain thing as Psalm two says the nations rage and peoples imagine a vain thing, but verse four says, He who sits in the heavens laughs. God is not concerned or intimidated or or confused about what's what's going on. But it is a reminder to us that and we wasn't designed to I preach this message the week we're supposed to all go vote, but it is a reminder to us how important it is to recognize that the votes we cast have moral implications and implications for the very foundations of society as we know it. So we're going to jump in and look at what is a God honoring marriage. We're going to see four principles that flow out of this text that define what every marriage should look like. And it is not an exaggeration for me to say that in some way, to some degree, every weak or struggling or broken marriage that I have ever seen, every single one has become weak or broken as a direct result of one or both people in the marriage not understanding or striving for these ideals. That is not an exaggeration to say every single one has failed on some count that we're going to discuss together this morning, God's designed marriage for the good of mankind to accomplish his purposes, which we will see and part of the good that mankind is to enjoy by God's design is the unique intimacy of marriage, a kind of relationship that's supposed to bring joy. Faith and pleasure, and bluntly, a two is better than one kind of usefulness in fulfilling his his mandate for all mankind to exercise dominion over the earth. So let's, let's dive in. Let's dive right in to these four principles, or four pursuits of a God honoring marriage. Number one, couples should cultivate intimate companionship. Couples should cultivate intimate companionship. Look first at verse 18, where we're told the condition that marriage was given to solve in the first half of verse 18, then the Lord God said it is not good for the man to be alone. Marriage was established by God to solve Adam's problem of being alone. Now I'm going to clarify that I don't think alone necessarily means marriage was designed to solve loneliness. That's not exactly what is meant by that. That term, there are many reasons why Two are better than one. And while I'm using the word companionship here, I'm not restricting what God's design is to relational intimacy. In fact, as we unpack a little bit, what does it mean to be one flesh with a husband or a wife, I would suggest that perhaps partnership is the better word. But here we see God's commentary that Adam was alone, and that condition of aloneness is the only thing about God's creation that he says was not good, right? He He creates day one, day two, and it was good. And morning and evening was the third, fourth, fifth day, right? And in every case, it was good. And then after he creates Eve, we see chapter one, verse 31 it was very good. But here, as God goes back in in chapter two, and he he unpacks some of the details involved in the creation, and particularly the creation of Eve. As he unpacks the details, he said there was that moment on that sixth day when it was not good. And what was not good was that Adam was alone. Why was it not good for Adam to be alone? Well, let's start with the first and maybe, maybe the most obvious point. Adam had been given some responsibilities in chapter one, verse 2728 we're familiar with them at this point from our study, our previous studies together. God made man in His own image, male and female. Verse 27 and he blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. Well, given that duty, it was definitely not good that Adam was alone, right? He could not do that on his own. Now that's not the only reason. I believe there was also an element of relational companionship that that by God's design, marriage is to to reflect, and as we live out the relational companionship in marriage, we are able to reflect the image of our relational God, God Who related within himself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit from from eternity past, a very personal and relational God who exists in three persons were created in His image to be relational beings. And so it wasn't good that Adam was alone because he couldn't be relational. But then also, as you go back to chapter one, verse 28 and you see the commission given by God in Genesis, notice that it says male and female. He blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing. The responsibility to rule and subdue the earth was a joint responsibility given to both Adam and Eve together. It was something they were assigned to do together, and God knew that, as he was about to commission mankind with those responsibilities, he knew that Adam could not fulfill those responsibilities alone. And so he says, It is not good that Adam is alone.
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Adam couldn't do all God was telling him to do. So there's at least three reasons rooted here in the text and in this divine commission, rooted in the responsibilities that God was giving them, Adam needed a helper in the relationships that they were meant to exhibit as men and women created in the image of God and. Is the matter of reproduction. There they were to fill the earth, ground zero, in terms of populating the earth, and in all for all those reasons, it was not good that Adam was alone. I think it's a beautiful picture, one, one that shows us how marriage is designed to be a total sharing of life together, and that sharing can be a joyful one. It was certainly designed to be a joyful sharing of life together and of responsibility together, prior to the fall, which we're about to learn about next week. This is another way I think God has allowed us to express our our relational nature, to reflect His divine image and to find companionship in the work that he's given us to do. Adam got a companion. He got a co laborer in the work that they were jointly called to do. There. There have been many definitions of marriage over the years, and I think one of the most common that I've seen from sort of our conservative evangelicalism is calling marriage a covenant of companionship. And while I do think it is that, I think there's a sense in which that brief definition trying to summarize aspects of marriage, has emphasized the relational part of marriage and sometimes overshadows those other aspects of marriage, particularly what it means to be a co laborer together in subduing and ruling the earth. Adam, again, needed a helper. Jesus history's most famous single person, right? As I will facili refer to him. Sometimes, Jesus didn't need marriage to image the relational nature of God or to complete the work the Father gave Him to do. But God, in His grace, has given a gift to us as finite human beings, not a god, man who can truly rule the earth, who because he made it, but as finite human beings. God has given us a gift to have a co laborer in the mission that he's given to us. And that CO laborer is someone whom we're to relate to in oneness, in relational intimacy, in partnership, I suspect probably in a group this size. Some of you might even be considering for the first time that the idea of Adam being the head of his home and Eve being a suitable helper, were lived out in a way that made them co laborers, vice regents, in a joint responsibility. It might be a new thought for you to say, Oh, they had the same responsibility, the same calling, and they were to do it together. That is, I think, what we what we see here, let's ask some practical questions as we think about this responsibility couples should pursue this intimate companionship and CO laboring. Do you, those of you here who are married, do you prize and value the privilege you have of having a co laborer, a partner in in every way that God has called you to please Him. You have a partner in that do you? Do you prize and value that privilege of relational intimacy during and as part of the fulfilling of your God given responsibilities. And I'm not thinking about the sexual relationship here, although that's wonderful. We'll talk about that a little bit later. I'm talking about the joy of having a relationship with someone else and striving toward fulfilling what God has called you to do, and having that relationship in such an intimate way that the person you live with is your favorite, like, can we just make it super simple, like, they're your favorite person on the entire planet, and you're Are you growing and striving to grow in your appreciation of them and your Ian? Your enjoyment of them and in your love and service and sacrifice for them because of it, can I suggest you, you simply make a goal of learning something new about your spouse every week and doing something loving for your spouse every week, like, if you would just make two two checklists at the top of your to do list every week, I'm going to learn something new about my spouse, and I'm going to do something loving and sacrificial for them just because they're them, because because it's good and it's right. Right? And God's given me them to enjoy and to and to serve. So that's a challenge. Do you? Do? You consider your work, all of your God given responsibilities, something that you you own and pursue together. And by that I mean, I mean, yes, your service to God and to his people, whatever your ministry is here at the church, but And yes, certainly your family. Mean, if you have a family, you certainly have a family, whether it's family that's older than you, or children younger than you, or whatever it is, you have some kind of family. Do you make loving and serving your family something that you do together. But I also mean your vocation, whatever it might be, and whether that vocation is somewhere out there in the workplace or or you, your vocation is home, serving the children, educating the children, whatever it might be. Do you see all of those things as things you're doing together in partnership with one another. And are you thoughtful and intentional about the ways in which you're cooperating in life to fulfill all of God's calling on you as a couple or as a family, you are joint heirs of the grace of life, and I believe God has called you to fulfill his calling, together, them, them, them, he keeps saying, Now, there's a place for leadership. We need to understand what headship and submission is, but even that, I think, is misunderstood and misapplied. And the result is often that this principle of CO laboring is overshadowed and ignored. Now, there are some other thoughts I have here for some singles, because I know not everybody here is is marriage, is married. Some of you are needing to understand, what does it mean to reflect the relational image of God in my singleness like Jesus did, or reflect my calling to rule and subdue the earth in my singleness, and that's the challenge for you, right? Are you thankful that you can focus on what God has called you to be and do with undistracted devotion to Christ? And I realize the challenge is that you're not always thankful for that. Sometimes it's painful. You wish perhaps you had a partner in life, but you don't. God hasn't brought one, and yet Paul says that one who is unmarried, first, Corinthians 732 can be concerned about the things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord, but the one who is married by necessity must be concerned about earthly things, how they may please their their spouse. Verse 33 I think actually this, this reminder that singles are called to wholehearted devotion and service to Christ. It should motivate this question. But I actually think it's often not asked thoroughly enough. When someone is single, when someone has a potential marriage partner on the horizon, do you ask the question? Are you ready to ask the question, will I be able to serve God more effectively and fully together with this person than single will I be able to serve God more effectively and fully together than I can singly? While the relational and CO laboring aspects of marriage are to be fulfilled and enjoyed by those who have them. They're by no means necessary for you to be joyful and fulfilled and productive for Christ and His Kingdom, and you don't want to lose sight of that. But for those of you who are married, here we see an intimate companionship, a one flesh relationship, between Adam and Eve, you once married can't fulfill God's purpose for your marriage if you aren't pursuing that companionship and cooperation and partnership in the work God has called you to. And I do think that is what Paul means. Paul, that is what
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Adam meant as God speaks here, for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. That is what it means to be one flesh, to completely share all of your life together with another. You're you become one in thought and spirit and heart and aims and and in in service doing everything together one flesh is not primarily a statement about physical intimacy or even about having children. It is about living life together in every. Way intimacy in children are just a possible expression of that, but not even always an expression of even a godly marriage, for many, many reasons. So being one flesh is about being one in spirit, thought, mind, purpose and in service to the Lord, about joining two persons in harmony and intimacy, and I wish I had more time to unpack that. We have a tool for that on the discipleship toolbox. On the website, go to FB, church.org, look for the Resources tab. Scroll down to discipleship toolbox. There you'll find a drop down menu for marriage. Under marriage, there's a link for God's design for marriage, where you'll hear one you'll get a handout where one flesh is unpacked and a homework assignment, which I know you'll appreciate. I'm a biblical counselor. It's what I do. I give homework. So I'd encourage you, if you want to be thoughtful and intentional about cultivating that companionship and partnership in your marriage. I'd encourage husbands and wives to find that tool on the website and spend a little bit of time walking through it, talking through it, together. That's the first pursuit of a God honoring marriage. Cultivate that companionship and partnership. Number two, we're going to speak to the wives for a bit. Wives compliment your husband's service to God. Compliment your husband's service to God. Here in verse 18, we have the first and most basic statement in Scripture that there is some kind of functional order within the marriage relationship. In other words, while man and woman are created in the same image and likeness of God, and while they equally share in the responsibility to rule over and subdue the earth, there is a functional order of headship and submission. And I've talked about this at length in in our message on First Corinthians, just just a few months ago. And if you want more, I think you can go and hear more about what the nature of headship and submission is. I want to focus in on what this text says. What does this particular phrase, I will make him a helper suitable for him mean, and then what are the implications for our marriages and our responsibility. You'll notice how I've worded the principle wives compliment your husband's service to God. That's compliment with an E in the middle, not compliment with an i This isn't good job mowing the lawn, honey. Or you look really handsome in that cowboy hat. I get that stuff all the time, but that's not what I'm talking about. This is compliment with an E in the middle. It a compliment is something that completes the other piece. It's something that helps the other piece rise to a more perfect or more functional or more effective purpose. That's what the idea of compliment is. I'm gonna I have a couple illustrations here. One is, is framing a painting. A painting can be beautiful all on its own, and we can enjoy its beauty. But sometimes when you put a well crafted, complimentary frame around it. It just makes it pop. Right? I'm no artist. That's probably not even the right word, but I think you know what I mean. Another example, perhaps, is a truck. Yes, I'm going to compare my wife to a truck. I'll let you know next time how it goes. Truck is a very useful tool. Has a lot of functions, but there are trucks and then there are trucks, right? Guys know what I'm talking about. Take a standard truck like mine. You can pull a utility trailer, maybe take some things to the dump. That's helpful, but put a bigger engine in that thing and modify the powertrain a little bit at a transmission cooler, high capacity, hitch some brake controllers. Now you can really haul some stuff, right? That's what I'm talking about. Those power trains, transmission coolers, the hitch, the controllers. Those are great compliments, additions to what is already a very useful truck, but now I can make it more useful, more powerful. Again, I'm not going to win any romance points by telling Michelle she's like the transmission cooler on my newly modified Chevy Silverado, but I can tell you, she makes me way more productive. She makes what I do and what I have done my whole life more effective and. More productive, and that was true before she was my administrative assistant, that just kind of magnifies the blessing and the benefits of who she is in my life. But that's what happens. That's what a man needs, is someone to compliment him and make him more effective and more productive. He needs a helper, that's the word, someone to help him get their mutual responsibilities done in a complimentary way. The word helper itself means that it's a it's a Completer. It's someone who comes along and completes or enhances or perfects, something who is called the helper the most in the Bible, God himself is called the helper the most. And in what context is God called the helper most often it's when he is providing for the widow and the orphan and the oppressed, because the nature of this word job refers to himself that way. In Job 2912, God refers to himself that way, many, many times in the script scriptures. Because a helper, in the biblical sense, is someone who comes alongside another who is needy or who is inadequate by themselves, and provides what they need, whether that's protecting the oppressed or providing food to the widow and the orphan. God is the one who comes alongside someone who is needy and inadequate and provides what they need. That's what a wife can be for a husband as well. The word suitable here a helper suitable means corresponding to, and it gives the idea of this is the perfect match for that need, for that inadequacy that he has. Man Adam was alone, was inadequate to reproduce, and, I think, inadequate to rule over the earth on his own. And God provided the perfect companion, the perfect helper, to meet that need, and that divine provision for a helper suitable has been passed on for the race of mankind ever since, because it's God's design within the relationship of marriage, the functionality of it, there's still a difference, there's still headship, there's still leadership, in some sense, but the wife being the helper, the suitable compliment is aiding In that process, as man and woman, husbands and wives work together to accomplish God's purposes for them and for their their family equals in regard to existing existence in the image of God, equals in regard to their standing before God and their privileges and ability to to relate to God and to serve God, and yet, functionally in marriage, different, I think, again, I think the equality of image bearing in the partnership has been sometimes overshadowed by an over emphasis in the authority relationship that That is still existing in the idea of headship, I'm not even sure the concept of authority is the primary emphasis of the term headship. And so let's, let's move to our third point, right? Wives, compliment your husband's service to God. I hope you're thinking carefully about, how can I come alongside him and make up for his lack and husbands, I would remind you Proverbs, 3127
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or proverbs 3126 says the words of wisdom are on her lips. I hope you're ready for that suitable helper that God has given to you to speak into your life and the situations of your life and the service you're rendering to God together with her, and you have a humble listening ear to that wisdom that God gives her. She knows you better than anybody else on the planet. That should be the case, just as you should know her better than anyone on the planet. She knows you better, and she knows your situation better, and she, above all people, is most able to speak wisely into your life and into your service to God. And yet, there's a third responsibility, speaking just to the husbands for a bit, that you're to exercise a loving headship now as we scan the details of verses 19 through 23 here, there are a number of elements that I think imply and point to this functional order of male headship and marriage. That's that's kind of key for one reason, because this is all pre fall stuff. So some people want to say, Oh, this whole authority structure in marriage. That's just because. Sin came into the world. No, it actually existed back here in Genesis two, not for long, as we've learned, but it did exist. You see Adam naming the animals. Adam, who was given the responsibility to exercise dominion over the earth and over the fish of the sea and the birds and everything that moves on the earth. Naming of the animals was a way in which Adam exercised his god given authority over them. But notice, Adam also got the privilege of naming Eve right she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man and we learned her proper name in verse 20 of of chapter three, I think the reality of Eve coming out of Adam's side, that God put him to sleep and took a rib out of his side and formed Eve from Adam, a marker of intimacy, but also an indication that she, she, the woman, is from the man, and that there's a relationship of authority there. The Bible, though, makes it perfectly clear, I believe that headship is not an absolute authority. It's not an authority that justifies chauvinism, misogynism, or oppressive treatment of women in any way that all of those things are a perversion of God's design for marriage, because every authority that we have on Earth is a delegated authority. There's not a single earthly authority that we have. And husbands, you, being a man in your home, is one of those. There is not a form of authority on the earth. It is not delegated authority, and therefore you have to exercise that authority under the ultimate authority, under the Lordship of Christ Himself, of God who granted it under the regulations and the design of the higher authority who both made it and granted it. And what does that look like? What does it look like to exercise godly, loving headship in a Christian home? Well, it's an authority that is to be exercised recognizing how precious your wife is, how precious she is in the sight of God, how precious she is to be to you. It is an authority and a leadership that comes with responsibilities to care and to provide and to nourish and to cherish. It's an authority that is humbled by the fact that you need a helper suitable to do your job. It's humble authority, and it's authority that recognizes that that helper is designed by God, not just to be a servant. They're not even that. They're designed to be an intimate, one flesh, companion in the calling that God has placed on your lives together. That's that's the only right way to think about it. Where do we see those ideas flushed out in Scripture? I think the most obvious places in Ephesians chapter five, where the apostle Paul quotes directly Genesis 224, in Ephesians five, and he describes what this loving headship should look like in a Christian home. Ephesians 525, Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. It's sacrificial. This, this headship that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by washing of water with the word, so that He might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle. It's a sanctifying leadership concerned about the spiritual health and growth of your wife in the same way husbands should love their wives as their their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. It's the kind of love and leadership that takes her interests as being more important than your own. To put it in Paul's words in Philippians two right, no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it's a leadership that nourishes and cherishes this, this gift that God has given to you, men not not controls, not demands, but nourishes and cherishes, because your members, one of another, therefore, because That's what God has designed it to look like. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. That's what godly headship looks like. It's sacrificial, it's servant hearted, it's loving, it's nourishing, it's cherishing. This kind of leading. Men in Christian homes, men doesn't leave room for being passive. You have to be thoughtful, intentional if you're going to lead and love your wife that way, and it doesn't leave room for being authoritarian either. Ephesians five paints such a rich picture of what loving Christ like, sacrificial, nourishing, cherishing of our wives ought to look like. Are you again, intentionally, purposefully trying to be that man? Now, insert gospel here, right? Can you be that man? I can't be that man. Ladies, can you be that woman? No, not in our own not in ourselves, not in our own strength, right? That's, that's why we so desperately need the gospel every single day, right? For the Lord to forgive us for when we fail and we do and we will, and the promises of the gospel that he can enable us to walk in newnesses of life, as sure as Christ has risen from the dead, so you too can walk in newness of life. He He longs to empower you to be that kind of man and ladies, to be that kind of woman. What does it look like? It looks like the fruit of the Spirit, right? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. I mean, imagine if our all of us as husbands and all of you as wives, if that were who we were in our homes. Right? What a glorious picture it would look like. And whatever role, whether you're the helper suitable or the head of your home, you reflecting those virtues and that kind of character on a practical level, husbands, I, you know, I would. I've said this before every behind, every Proverbs, 31 wife is a proverbs 31 husband who knows her hopes and dreams and desires and gifts and who understands how to encourage her and enable her and empower her to flourish in fulfilling those things. And you're doing that because you know, as she does, that she's contributing to your joint calling, as husband and wife as a family, to do all that God has called you to. So it's not about your plans, but about God's plans. Do you know? Do you know what your wife's gifts, desires, dreams, maybe fears are? I preached a version of this sermon in May at Trinity Church of the valley, and then we went and had lunch at the Funches house. Bless their heart, those girls, they're smart. His girls are smart? Mr. Sayers? What are Mrs. Sayers? Dreams and hopes and desires? I was like pass the bread? No, by God's grace, I had a good answer that Michelle confirmed. So I you know, as I say, those questions, right? Like men, write them down. Write them down and ask yourself, Do I know what those are? Because I want to enable my wife to flourish in all the ways that God has called her to flourish. Are you deliberately nourishing and cherishing her to that to that end.
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All right, one last point, one last point. To give our broad overview of the beginnings of marriage, just a little icing on the cake, so to speak, enjoy selfless intimacy. Enjoy selfless intimacy. The task Adam had in naming of the animals would have made it abundantly clear, right, that there was not another corresponding to him. He didn't have a match, right? There was, there was no one who was, who was like him, and God provides for him. Eve in recovering biblical manhood and womanhood, Ray Orland describes what happened next. And I, I just showed so appreciated this. I just put it in my notes. We may surmise that an aching longing welled up within Adam for the companionship of another creature on his level. And so God performs the first surgical operation. Imagine the scene as the last of the beasts plods off with its new name, Adam turns away with a trace of perplexity and sorrow in his eyes. And God says to him, Son, I want you to lie down, close your eyes. And he falls. Falls into a deep slumber, and the creator goes to work, opening his side, removing a rib, closing the womb, and building the woman who stands perfect, gorgeous, uniquely suited to his need. And he touches Adam and says, wake up. I have one last creature for you to name. I'd like to know what you think of this one. And God leads Eve out to Adam, who greets her with rhapsodic relief. This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because she was taken out of man. These are the first recorded human words, he says. And they are poetry. They're poetry. What do they express the joy of the first man in receiving the gift of the first woman. This creature alone, Father, out of all the others, this one, at last, meets my needs for a companion. She alone is my equal, my very flesh. I love her. I will call her woman, for she came out of man. See that that longing in the perfections in which Adam existed then was for the fulfillment of of all God's will for mankind, and now the loving of an equal formed from that which came from his own very body, After God constitutes that first marriage by fashioning Eve declaring the one flesh nature of marriage. There's this awkward phrase, and the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. Now, sin is going to introduce shame into this relationship really, really soon, as soon as they eat of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they are immediately going to want to cover that nakedness. Aren't they a shame they did not know previously is going to be introduced into that perfect relationship when they were created before sin, that everything they experienced was perfectly pleasurable, including the selfless marital intimacy that they would have enjoyed that was For them, first and foremost, a relational, affectionate, selfless interest in the other person. That's what oneness relationally would look like. The reference to nakedness implies that that relational oneness and affection and selfless interest was also experienced physically untainted by sin. Imagine a marriage relationship where nothing was ever done for selfish pleasure, where a husband and wife were interested in one another, not for what they could get out of it, but for what the other person would enjoy, and where nothing would hinder the pursuit of that mutual satisfaction and pleasure that was the kind of relationship Adam and Eve enjoyed, and sin has corrupted every aspect of marriage, including the physical relationship, but initially, between Adam and Eve, there was no shame, no selfishness, no reluctance, no embarrassed self consciousness, Just selfless and shameless pursuit of pleasing their spouse. Why does God put that here? I think he put it here because he knows that this is one area of every marriage where married couples are inevitably going to see the selfishness of their own heart, the shame of their sin, and it's going to happen in more ways than we could count, whether, whether you see that selfishness in trying to get what only pleases you, or whether that selfishness is seen by not really wanting to please the other, Whatever and however it rears its head. Sin attacked that piece of marital perfection too. God doesn't go into a lot of detail. Thank you. And I think that reflects the reality that the physical relationship, it is actually just only one aspect of marriage. It certainly isn't to be the aspect of marriage to over emphasize at the expense of the other. And yet here he's saying there was a time, and it is by my design, that man and wife, husband and wife, could be naked and not ashamed and enjoy that blessing in marriage unhindered by sin. If a couple is pursuing companionship and relational intimacy and that one flesh partnership that God has designed most of the time, they're also going to be learning how to selflessly enjoy intimacy with one another, because that's part of God's ideal. And so again, is that a mindset you have married folks that I'm going to intentionally and purposefully pursue, what it means, what it looks like, to enjoy that as a blessing from God in every way that he would have me do it. Now again, gonna step back again and say the gospel is the only thing that makes us able to have a selfless heart mindset in any regard, right? Whether it's how we're loving, nourishing, cherishing, serving, how we're coming alongside, complimenting, how it's how we're pursuing intimacy together. We need the help and the hope of the Gospel for forgiveness and what we've done wrong and for the strength to do what is right by God's grace for His glory. Amen, God, thank you for your ideals. They are ideals that we we see. And then we think, Oh, man, it would take so much, so much energy, so much intentional pursuit to be living these things out perfectly. And then we're reminded how much we need the gospel to strengthen us, inform us and for to forgive us. So help us. Help us as men and women, as husbands, as wives, as people called together to serve you in every way. Help us to do that faithfully and for your glory, we ask it through Christ, our Savior, amen
Brian is the Pastor of Counseling & Equipping at Faith Bible Church. He is passionate about the local church, and equipping the saints to effectively serve one another. Before coming to Spokane, he spent 14 years serving God's people as a pastor in rural New England (Vermont & New Hampshire).
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