“And the Two will become One”

Have you ever wondered what God meant when He said, “And the two will become one”? Obviously married people are still two physically separate individuals. And yet He said, “What God has joined together let no man separate”.

In the last few years people we are close to have lost a mate. They were married 30 years or more. I remember when my father died and how it devastated my mother. When this happens, I have recognized these people really feel like part of them is gone. The two had become one and now half of the “one” is gone.

Pondering this took me back to Genesis and the creation story. God had finished the process of creating the world and was happy with His work except for one thing. At that point He said, “It is not good for man to be alone”.  Then He created woman and said, “The two will become one”.

This was the Garden of Eden. This was paradise. This was a place we can only imagine…the world before the fall. And yet to make it perfect the “two” had to become “one”. I find that thought intriguing. I wonder if we even begin to understand the significance of that thought.

Other than the obvious physical differences between man and woman, there are other differences like provider/ protector versus nurturer/ comforter. I have come to see a good marriage as two individuals with different strengths coming together to form a unit. It is like God takes two incomplete “halves” to make one completed “whole”. The two together (as one) are better equipped to do God’s work than they could possibly be separately. There is a synergy that makes 1 + 1 = 3 or 4; much greater than 2.

We probably have little disagreement with the theory, but how does that function day-to-day? Eve was created as a “helpmate suitable”. The word used is “ezer”. An ezer is not a servant or lesser part of the whole. The Bible Knowledge Commentary says, “God decided to make a helper suitable for the man. Helper is not a demeaning term; it is often used in Scripture to describe God Almighty. They both had the same nature. But what man lacked she supplied and what she lacked he supplied. The culmination was one flesh – the complete unity of man and woman in marriage”.

In battle, an ezer is the person standing directly behind you; you are back to back protecting each other. It is someone that is a teammate in the “battles” of life. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. If either of them falls down, one can help the other up.”

There is an old saying, “Opposites attract”. I have found that true in my own marriage. We have many differences. The differences in the “opposite” fill in the gaps of the other. Maybe that’s why God made opposites attracted to each other. However, if we do not recognize the differences our mate brings to the marriage as strengths, the differences can soon become irritations. Satan can use those irritations to try to separate the “one” back into “two”; two weaker halves unable to be as effective for the Kingdom as they could be when united.

When I allow my wife’s strengths and gifts to fill in the weak spots in me and she does the same, the two of us become “one”; one tool in God’s hand to touch our family and the world around us for His Kingdom. Such teams are the ones Satan wants to tear apart. I believe Satan’s greatest desire is to weaken or destroy “What God has joined together”, to make us weaker teams than God wants us to be. My prayer is that as God’s people we can recognize that and not allow our differences to become irritations that the Deceiver can use to manipulate.

Imagine the Body of Christ full of couples that have “become one”; couples living in harmony in this chaotic world; couples that are loving and serving each other, their family and the world around them; couples that together are the “salt” and “light” Jesus talked about in the Sermon on the Mount. Imagine the effect it would have on our families, neighbors and the people we work with. We could be the strongest reflection of God’s love some people have ever seen. Imagine a world where the “twos” have become “ones” and God gets the glory.