Marriage as Completion: One Flesh

In the Bible, the word flesh doesn’t simply mean your body. It doesn’t simply mean what the English word flesh means, which always means simply skin, sinew, blood, and guts. Actually, there’s a place in the Bible where God says, “I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh…” That doesn’t mean, “I will pour out my Spirit on everybody’s body.” It means, “I’ll pour out my Spirit on all people.” The word flesh means a person. When it says the two will become one flesh, it says you’ll be one person.

You’re really no longer the same two people, but you’re a third entity. This oneness is tremendously deep. It’s organic. It’s vital. It’s not mechanical.

How is it that this one-fleshness can be developed? Let me give you three ways it can happen and three reasons it doesn’t happen. If you do these three things properly, it develops deep oneness. If you fail to do them or if you do them wrongly, it creates what most marriages are–basically, business partnerships.

This sermon was preached by Rev. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 22, 1991. Series "Marriage". Scripture: Ephesians 5:22-33.

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