God’s Word for You

Genesis 2:24 One flesh

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Wednesday, September 2, 2026

24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and remain united with his wife, and they will be one flesh.”

In Matthew 19:4-5, Jesus quotes from this passage to explain marriage. He says, “Haven’t you read that the Creator from the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and that he said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one. Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate.” This shows that Jesus, the Son of God, believed and taught (as we do in his footsteps) that the Genesis account is true and correct. The creation of man and woman and the first marriage were just as it is recorded for us.

But we might ask, were the words of this verse spoken directly by God, or by Moses the inspired author, or by Adam? In the New Testament, Jesus (Matthew 19:5-6; Mark 10:7-8) and Paul (Ephesians 5:31) take this as the divine institution of marriage at the creation, and therefore still governed by the words, “The man said” (2:23). Jesus makes an addition to this, “Therefore what God has joined together, man must not separate” (Matthew 19:6). Martin Luther also believed and judged by the grammar that Adam was still speaking here. He says, “Adam prophesies this way about the life of married people, about their own dwelling place, about the division of dominion over the entire world, so that individual families might live in their own little nest” (LW 1:139). The text points to Adam as the speaker, but whether this was God, Moses, or Adam speaking, it is the inspired Word of God.

What, then, are we being told here? This is how we must apply this excellent verse. When a man or woman is still single, they remain a part of their parents’ family. But when they get married, the words of our marriage rite summarize the doctrine: “You have come here to be united in marriage, which consists in your mutual consent, sincerely and freely given.” Their voluntary consent is to begin (that is to found, or to build) a new family. The love that they once devoted to their parents is not lost or set aside, but their love now centers on one another. Their first priority and duty has changed to one another and to the family they are now beginning together.

They will be one flesh. This is a reference to the sexual union, which is set aside as holy by the Holy Spirit for marriage. Paul explains this with perfect clarity: “Because of sexual sins, each man should have his own wife, and each woman her own husband. For his wife, the husband must fulfill his marital duty. And the wife for her husband. The wife is not the only master of her body, but her husband as well. And the husband is not the only master of his body, but his wife as well” (1 Corinthians 7:2-4). So the two belong together, and they belong to one another. When she desires sexual fulfillment, he is the one to give it, and when he desires sexual fulfillment, she is the one to give it.

But sex is not the only meaning of “one flesh,” because it is set opposite the loving bond a man has had with his parents. Therefore, marriage is the whole realm of all of the interests and even the duties and responsibilities of each member of the couple. This doesn’t mean that because she is a teacher or an accountant, that now he also does those things. It means that he will respect her duties and responsibilities in those things, and not complain about the time she must spend for that work, and so on.

“One flesh” also means that they will be companions for one another. This was the problem, the “not good” issue, with which God instituted marriage in the first place. He showed the man that his solitude was not God’s design, but that he intended for a person to have a spouse.

In his doctrinal textbook for WELS teachers, Professor Lyle Lange asks and answers a common question: “Is a couple entitled to sexual relations if they are engaged but have not yet been through a wedding ceremony?” The answer is found not only in the Sixth Commandment, but the Fourth: “Couples will not seek to have sexual relations until they have made a firm commitment to each other and fulfilled the laws of the state. Sexual relations may take place when both obligations are fulfilled.” That is to say, after the wedding ceremony.

There are many sins exposed here:

• Living together without marriage
• Casual sex
• “Committed relationship” sex (apart from marriage)
• Homosexual sex (with or without marriage, Romans 1:26-27)
• Pornographic stimulation
• Sex trafficking (which is kidnapping, abuse, and more)
• Rape
• Prostitution

All these involve sins against the Fourth, Sixth, and Tenth Commandments, and unfortunately sometimes the Fifth as well, when there is abuse and violence.

Paul says very simply: “For it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret” (Ephesians 5:12). And he commands: “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming” (Colossians 3:5-6).

One thing needs to be, has to be, added here. Anyone who has sinned in these ways (or others not mentioned) needs to repent. Even when a mistake was a long time ago, it will gnaw at the conscience, and it can cause despair and even terror when death approaches. Confess the sin, which will not go away on its own. Confess it, and then be assured “of the great consolation it brings to terrified consciences… [We] are told that God requires faith to believe such absolution as God’s own voice heard from heaven, and are assured that such faith truly obtains and receives the forgiveness of sins” (Augsburg Confession XXV §4).

In this way, whatever tears, gashes, bruises, and cuts are there in the one flesh of marriage, they are healed in the forgiveness of our Savior. Married, divorced, widowed, single—we all need forgiveness and we are all comforted by the blessings that come through faith in Jesus. Be at peace with God.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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