Tuesday, September 20, 2022

The two became One

 Read Song of Solomon 6.

"What's mine is yours."  That statement announces an unreserved presentation of one person to another.  There is no holding back, no secrets, and no place for selfish protection.  Joyfully giving up a sense of ownership to a spouse for life is a Biblical understanding of marriage.

The Apostle Paul wrote in no uncertain terms, "The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband.  For the wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does.  Likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does." (1 Corinthians 7:3-4)

"But I have my rights," some would say.  "It is my body and I can do what I want," others claim.  Maintaining those views of personal rights will not only violate the Scriptural statements of marriage, but they will hinder and then destroy the relationship.

Notice the statements from the text expressing this sense of belonging.
Husband: "This is my beloved and this is my friend." (5:16)

Wife: "I am my beloved's and my beloved is mine." (6:3)

Husband: "My dove, my perfect one, is the only one..." (6:9)

Jack S. Deere comments that her nickname, Shulammite (v.13), in Hebrew is a feminine form of Solomon.  Others so identified her with her husband, as a couple, that they referred to her in that manner; Solomoness, if you will. 

Eve was called Woman "because she was taken out of Man."  The declaration was "therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they all become one flesh" (Genesis 2:23-24).  Oneness is not sameness.  Rather, it is two opposites that complement each other to form a whole.

 

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