there are many ways the two may express love for each other none is as private and sacred as the sexual relationship. This physical union cannot be lust. It is the giving of one's whole self to a husband or wife. If a husband really under stood the truth that he is one flesh with his wife, it would be as nor mal for him to love his wife as his own body, and as difficult for him to hurt her as to hurt his own flesh. He cannot harm his wife without harming himself! Because of this union, Christ teaches that marriage is for life. Di vorce is like an operation in which a vital member is taken from a living body. When a man has a wounded leg, the last thing a sur geon thinks of doing is cutting the leg off. Anthropologist Margaret Mead says,"The most serious thing that is happening in the United States is that people enter marriage now with the idea that it is termin able." Only marriage causes a man to leave his parents to join himself to his wife. No relationship on earth is more permanent and complete or important than a Christian mar riage. Husbands, because a woman gives you her life, her love, all that she is and can be, that is the finest gift you could ever receive. Your responsibility before God is to be the truest and finest man possible through the power of the Holy Spirit. The same is true for a wife whose husband dedicates his en tire being to her. What more could be desired? How thankful we can be that Jesus Christ does not lead us into darkness. The marriage relation ship, when seen through His eyes, is the most delightful and sacred of all human relationships. Let us Page 9
stone. It is never the norm or the ideal situation. Such actions only show the sinfulness of man. This is what Christ taught. The basic concept of marriage is that Cod created the race male and female (Genesis 2:18). Marriage is the only institution that comes from the other side of the fall of man. Society did not invent it! God made marriage and bestowed it on man kind. Adam did not take a wife to himself by his own will. He re ceived her as offered by God. When two young people stand before a minister in the presence of a Christian congregation, they are swearing a solemn oath in the sight of human witnesses. To the Christian, marriage is much more than a legal contract. It is an act of God. An oath, sworn before God, cannot be taken lightly. That is why most Christian ceremonies include the minister's words that marriage is "not to be entered into unad visedly or lightly, but reverently, discreetly, advisedly, and in the fear of God." Christ further pointed out that marriage is the deepest possible relationship into which a man and a woman may enter (Genesis 2:24; Mark 10:8). The two in union are seen as "one flesh." Jesus was not being sentimental. God truly unites a man and a woman in a profound biological-spiritual union reaching to the depths of life. Two person alities are joined to become a single entity. The term "one flesh" is used five times in the Scripture (Genesis 2:24; Matthew 19:5, 6; Mark 10:8; I Corinthians 6:10; Ephesians 5:3). It refers primarily to the physical consummation of marriage. For this reason, a sexual encounter can never be a passing affair. While
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