THEY ARE NO LONGER TWO, BUT ONE BODY
Sakkie Parsons
Translated from Afrikaans
Translator: Robin Barker
Someone wrote to me and asked the following question:
“What is the meaning of: That which God has brought together, no person may separate?”
I assume the person is referring, for example, to MAT19:6, but you can also read it in
MARK 10:9.
Just for interest sake, just a little background. John the Baptist ended up in jail and was beheaded because of his comments about marriage and things pertaining to marriage that were wrong according to our Lord’s view of marriage. This, as I see it, was an attempt by Jesus’s opponents/enemies, namely the Pharisees and their “cronies,” to try and get Jesus to follow the same road as John the Baptist.
One feels like shouting out: How evil and blind can a person become when you are led by satan! Because, before them stands God who became man, and they are trying to get Him into jail, with the hope that He will be put to death.
Well now, For Jesus, in His answer to these people, it is primarily not about their question to Him about divorce, but what is really the most important thing to remember when you talk about any aspect of marriage, is how our Lord view the things you reason about and how He looks at marriage in general. Read the following:
MAT19:3 “Some Pharisees came to him to test him. They asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?”
They asked Jesus about “divorce” but look at what Jesus is talking about. Putting it another way, look at what is of high importance and first priority to Jesus, our Lord, God who became man, when he answers them about marriage:
MAT 19:4 Haven’t you read (in marriage),”He replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’
MAT 19:5 and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?”
Jesus is referring to GEN 1:27:
GEN 1:27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
As well as:
GEN 2:24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
Returning to the question namely: “What is the meaning of: that which God has brought together, no man may separate?”
In my answer I quote MAT 19:6 and it is Jesus, God who became man, self who says:
MAT 19:6 So they are no longer two, but (as God views marriage) one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
The first thing that we must understand here is – When Jesus says:
MAT 19:6 “…what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Here Jesus is talking specifically about marriage. A ceremony, if you want to call it that, where a man and woman who are in love with each other, in the presence of our Lord say to each other, and putting it in a nut shell, that the one says to the other that they will be faithful spouse to each other until death.
With this in mind – Let us just look at what our Lord meant by this; with whom may we become married. I am saying it this way because there are more than one denomination, in my opinion, through which so much evil is preached, about who may be bound in marriage to whom.
Now we read in the Word:
GEN 2:21-24
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh.
22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.
For me it is very clearly stated, apart from all the other testimonies which are clearly written, our Lord’s intention regarding marriage is that a marriage can only be when one man and one woman are involved in it.
Any other combination, to put it that way, is not according to our Lord’s wishes. To put it in another way – any other combination which is called a marriage, as I understand it, is not in accordance with the Bible. In other words, is not according to the Word of our Lord and therefore according to my opinion is not Christian.
How glorious to know the marriage between a man and a woman, as I understand it, is a thought from our Lord’s heart. This one entity body between a man and a woman that our Lord envisaged in a marriage becomes beautifully visible to mankind when you look at the marriage couple’s children. Half the father and half the mother can be seen in their children. So – for me it is very clear. Our Lord looks at a man and a woman in a marriage and sees, to put it that way, one entity/body. Therefore we read:
MAT 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
So, what does it mean:
MAT 19:6 “…what God has joined together, let no one separate.” ?
Well, it means very simply that I must not be the reason for a marriage to be broken apart.
For the person who is causing that the marriage between a man and a woman breaks apart, basically takes something what God Almighty has established in his/her two hands and tears it apart into shreds in front of God Almighty.
Because listen again to how our Lord views a man and a woman who have been joined in marriage:
MAT 19:6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh …”
So, let us pay close attention to this:
MAT 19:6 “…what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
I really cannot stop here, because then there will be many, especially woman, as I have noticed in my ministry, which are burdened with guilty consciences because they are unable to remain any more in their marriages.
There are for certain circumstances where, in my opinion, someone who leaves a marriage, not the one who breaks apart the marriage, but where it is their life partner who breaks apart the marriage and if they remained in the marriage, they would eventually themselves either end up in an institute, or maybe even end up in a grave.
Greetings,
Sakkie