“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”“For this cause a man will leave his father and mother and will be joined to his wife. Then the two will become one flesh.”For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh.
19 sermons cite this verse
… mean, maybe that's some common sense. Is there anything from the Bible that suggests that? Well, there is. We get a clue from Genesis 2.24, for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. Without dwelling too much on that verse, it is striking that it says the man will leave his father and mother. You might think of it because a woman usually takes the man's name and the man becomes the head of the family. and I think all of us even today understand that usually there is a sense in which that relational cohesion is built around the woman, and there is a natural link for the woman to her family and the husband, yes, to his family, but there will be a stronger link usually from the daughter back to her mother. And so, a man leaves his father and mother, cleaves to his wife. The implication there is there is, now you're part of a family, but you are forming something unique. And surely, if the language is of leaving a father and mother, then there is a requirement that the parents can make upon their children that does change. Now, in that time, it would have naturally been when a child leaves and gets married, which would have happened very young, would have happened often as teenagers or in their 20s, would have generally happened young. …
… for just a moment. Let me illustrate what I mean. Ephesians 5 and 31. He says, For this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. Now, what he is doing there is he is quoting. He is appealing to the way in which God has established things to be from the beginning. In other words, he says, Now, here is a social unit—husbands and wives. This is how you are to live, and this is why you're to live this way. So he takes it, and he substantiates his call by quoting Scripture. You find the same thing in Ephesians chapter 6 in relationship to the way in which children are supposed to submit to their parents. People who say today, well, the children don't have to do this. Why would they have to do this? The answer is, children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. What makes it right? The law of God makes it right. What about the law of God? The fifth commandment. Honor your father and mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God gives you. So in other words, he says, husbands and wives, this is your part in the social climate. And this is why the Bible says so. Children, this is your responsibility, and I am underpinning it by telling you by quoting Scripture. Now, when he comes to the issue of slavery, he doesn't underpin it with anything. …
… At the beginning, the creator, God, made them male and female 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. So what did we see? God created gender and God created marriage and God created sex and God called it all good. And the Bible consistently teaches something about marriage. Now, people didn't live up to it in the Old Testament and the New Testament, but he taught it. The Bible consistently teaches that marriage is between one man and one woman, and any sexual activity outside of God's design for marriage, the Bible calls sin. Whether it's pornography, lust, same-sex sexual behavior, any sex outside of marriage, the Bible says, is sin. Paul's very clear in 1 Corinthians 6, 18. How do you deal with sexual sin? Paul says, flee from it. He doesn't say flirt with it. He doesn't say, try to fight it off. He says, run, Forrest, run. Flee sexual immorality. Why? Because all other sins a person commits are outside of the body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body. If you are a follower of Jesus, here's what Paul said. You are not your own. In other words, you don't get to make the rules. Your desires are not king. You are not your own. You are bought at a price. The blood that Jesus shed paid for the forgiveness of your sins. Therefore, Or honor God with your bodies. …
Because in Matthew chapter 19, Jesus told us he demonstrated God's pattern for human sexuality. He said, for this reason, a man shall leave his mother and father and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. God said, here's my plan for sexuality, one man with one woman in a marriage relationship. The problem with same-sex marriage is this. Anytime you counterfeit something, you devalue it. The reason the government doesn't allow you to make your own currency at home is. If you make your own money, you devalue the real currency. You make it less valuable. And it's the same thing with marriage. If we say to people, okay, marriage is whatever you want it to be, then you have devalued marriage. If you say it doesn't matter whether it's a man or a woman, or if it's two men or two women, or one man with three women, or one man with his favorite pet, marriage is whatever you want it to be. Whatever floats your boat, you know, go ahead and do that. What you do is you devalue marriage. And the problem is, is not with a lot of gays going out and getting married. It's what it does to the heterosexual rate of marriage. …
… created them from the beginning made them male and female? And he said, for this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. Consequently, they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate. Jesus said you can answer this whole question about divorce and remarriage by going back to God's original plan and pattern for human sexuality. You know what God's pattern for human sexuality is? Jesus said it right here. He said a mouthful. He said sex is reserved, first of all, for people in a marriage relationship. He said a man shall cleave to his wife. Sex is reserved for the marriage relationship. Secondly, he said, sex is between a man and a woman. God created them male and female. A man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife. God's plan for human sexuality is very clear. Yes, it's true. Jesus never mentioned the word homosexuality. He never said, thou shall not commit homosexuality. But guess what? Jesus never said, thou shall not commit incest. Jesus never said, thou shall not commit bestiality, or pedophilia, or necrophilia. He never spoke out against any of those things. Was it he was pro necrophilia and pedophilia? Of course not. By upholding God's pattern for sexuality, by saying, here's the way God designed it. …
… verse 26 through 28, God's creation of man and woman in his image to Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, God's institution of marriage between a man and a woman for the purpose, Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 33 of displaying the gospel and a husband's selfless sacrificial love for his wife, a wife's submissive respect and love for her husband, which leads to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, and a father and a mother loving their child in a way that reflects the love of God for that child. There's so much we could talk about here, but just to bring the data on to bear on why this is so important, do you know what percentage of women seeking abortions are unmarried in our country. Approximately 86%. So almost nine out of 10 women in our country who seek abortions are unmarried. We in our culture have decoupled sex from marriage and the effects are tragic for children in the womb. the devilish fruit of sexual immorality is the death of millions of boys and girls and do you know who's the most influential person in a woman's decision to have an abortion research shows it's the father of that baby there's not even a close second And most fathers are at best abdicating that decision, if not encouraging it. …
… I'll put it on the screen. Ephesians chapter five, verse 31. Paul quotes from Genesis two, just like Jesus does. He says, therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. And then he says, this mystery is profound. and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. So the purpose of marriage is to point us to Christ. Follow the logic here. Marriage is a picture of Christ and the church on the canvas of the world. Ephesians 5 says, Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So a husband is designed by God to be a picture to the world of Christ's love for the church, a selfless, sacrificial love. And Ephesians 5 says, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. So a wife is designed by God to be a picture to the world of the church's love for Christ, a joyful, submissive love. …
… Today, God is speaking crystal clear to us. And in Ephesians 5, verse 31, we have a quotation from Genesis 2. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother, hold fast to his wife. The two shall become one flesh. That's what we just read in Genesis 2, 24. And then God says in his word, this mystery of marriage is profound. And I'm saying that it refers to Christ and the church. What? Do you see this? The Bible's saying that in Genesis 2 God was painting a portrait Of Christ and the church Which changes everything about how We're reading Genesis 2 To realize that God's design Intent for marriage From the very beginning of human history Was to paint a portrait of Jesus And the church On the canvas of human history You say, what do you mean? Well, in this same passage, Ephesians 5, 25 says, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. So a husband's love for his wife is designed by God to be a picture, a representation of Christ, Jesus' love for the church. …
… So we are members of his body. For this reason, and here's Genesis again, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you must love his wife as he loves himself. And the wife must respect her husband. Love and respect. I was excited. I got all the way through all this, and then I discovered this book that a lot of you apparently already know called Love and Respect. And this was a book of a year book. and he did a study of 400 guys and 400 ladies and he was asking them, would you rather be alone and unloved or disrespected? And 75% of the guys said, I would rather be alone and unloved than disrespected. And 75% of the women in the survey said, I would rather be disrespected than to be alone and unloved. And he was just drilling down into this idea that guys wanna be respected. …
… encourage you, fight for unity. Fight for your marriage. A love that lasts. Watch what Jesus says. He's quoting the book of Genesis here. Watch Matthew chapter 19. For this reason, a man will leave his father and his mother. That means get out of your parents' basement and be united to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but they are one flesh. Therefore, Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man separate. Let nobody separate you. Why? Why does God need to quote all the way back to the first book of the Bible? Because there's going to be some things that try and separate you and your spouse. There's going to be some people that try and get in the way of your marriage. And you've got to fight for unity. What God has joined together, let no man separate. When I was in Bible college my freshman year, I was in a class, big class for our Bible college, like 60-something people. …
… body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reverence to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife, even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Now backing up to verse 18, just to remind you, those who are Spirit-filled, verse 18, with the Spirit, those who are joyful worshipers, verse 19, those who are constantly thankful, verse 20, and those who are mutually submissive are the ones who are going to enjoy the richness of marriage as the grace of life. Last week we talked about the wives. This week I want to pick it up at verse 25, and the duty of the husband. And it's so simple and impossible to misunderstand. One command, husbands love your wives. Nothing about authority there, nothing about dominance, nothing about ruling, nothing about subjecting, nothing about commanding. …
… the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Now I understand in the culture in which we live the outright offense of a portion of Scripture like this, and there are many others that I will take you to this morning before we are finished. We are living in a culture that is making a complete effort to destroy men, to destroy women, to destroy children, to destroy families, to destroy marriage. This is an all-out massive assault. An illustration of this happened just very recently at the University of Wisconsin, where Matt Walsh, who produced a documentary called What is a Woman? …
… body of Christ I'm gonna read it out the version that Tom Rainer has and then I want to read it out of the message bible Ephesians chapter 5 verse 29 and 33 listen to the language of how family shows up in the body of Christ Ephesians 5 verse 29 reads like this for no one ever hates his own flesh but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it just as Christ does for the church verse 30 because we are members of his body for this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be joined his wife and and the two will become one flesh this is great mystery but I am speaking about Christ and the church each of you however should love his wife as himself and a wife should respect her husband check this language Paul is using all this language that kind of interweaves between Christ loving the church how a husband should love his wife and Christ has given his life to care for the church is as if the the church is the bride of Christ or the wife quote unquote of Christ and be just like a husband takes care of his bride or supposed to and just like a bride is supposed to respect her husband supposed to catch me right there that's the that's the kind of imagery that Christ has with the church it is something you nourish it is something that you spend time with and so because no church is perfect we've got to love this place like Christ …
… Here's how it reads in Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5, verse 31. Paul says, the two will become one flesh. Again, you see the phrase there from Genesis 2. This mystery is profound. But I'm actually talking, and so was Moses when he wrote Genesis, I'm actually talking about Christ and the church. In other words, get this. It is pretty mind-blowing. The whole marriage covenant and the whole sexual relationship reenacts Christ's relationship with the church. I mean, think about all the ways, right? When you make a covenant in marriage, it's just like the salvation covenant. You stand at an altar and you unite in a covenant by saying, all I do, you unite all of yourself to all of them forever. And that means that everything that is yours becomes theirs, both the good and the bad, your liabilities and your assets. Everything that was theirs becomes yours, the good and the bad. The wife then takes on a new family name. Then you exchange rings as a symbol of that. Then you celebrate with a meal. Then you have sex as the physical seal of that commitment, out of which God often brings forth new life. Every one of those steps illustrates the gospel. …
… For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Now, folks, let me just tell you something here very plainly. Here's God's plan for marriage. All a marriage is just wrapped up in verse 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife. Do you know what the highest relationship on this earth is? It is not parent-child. And it is not child-parent. It is husband and wife. For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife. It's so important here that we see that the priority of marriage is the relationship between a man and his wife. …
… For we are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones. And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife. The word literally means welded, fused to his wife. And they too shall be one flesh. The word leave speaks of the priority of marriage. The word be joined speaks of the permanence of marriage. One flesh speaks of the purpose of marriage. It's all right there. That's God's plan. It is loyalty. Again, I want to say the highest of all human relationships. contrary to popular opinion, is not mother-child, nor is it child-parent. It is husband and wife. Hope you understand that. There is no other human relationship like this. Never ever is it said of anyone else that they are one flesh. And so that speaks of the priority of marriage, and to be joined speaks of the permanence of marriage. Divorce is never the plan of God. Never the plan of God. You show me a young married couple that get married with divorce as an option, and I'll show you a home that has a great, great potential for disintegration. …
For this cause, shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. That is, it's difficult to understand. But then he says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. I give you the illustration, he says. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself. and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Gentlemen, let's start with you first. I'll start with me. What am I to do if I would tune up my marriage? Well, I am to be to Joyce what Jesus is to the church. I am to give to Joyce what Jesus gives to the church. Now that means three major things. First of all it means leadership. Look if you will in verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife. Do you see that lady? Do you see that sir? The husband is the head of the wife. How is he the head of the wife? As Christ is the head of the church. Now how is Christ the head of the church? …
… For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Harmony in the home. We told you that in order for there to be music, and music that we like to listen to, there must be melody. We sing the same song. There can be harmony. we sing different parts. There ought to be rhythm where we sing it together. So what an illustration of what a marriage ought to be and the music of marriage. Now we were talking this morning about the fact that God made men and women different that He might make us one. And how that we sing the same song but the man sings one part and takes the lead and the woman sings the other part and harmonizes with her husband. But the things that I have given to you about the differences between men and women, I'm just going to take these off just to remind you that God teaches that the man is to be the provider, and the woman is to be his helper. …
… but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. That all sound familiar, because that's exactly what we read last week in the Genesis 2 passage. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respect her husband. You remember we looked at those two purposes last week. That first purpose, that purpose of procreation, which we said was more than just bringing children into the world, but bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That second purpose was illustration, to paint a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church, which is precisely what we see here in this text. Now, ladies, if you're paying attention, I know you're astute Bible scholars. You know that what she must be, what we're talking about next week, is in the verses that precede these verses. It's before. …