The Trinity of Husband, Wife, and God
In Mark 10:6-9 (NIV), Jesus was quoting Genesis when he said, “But at the beginning of creation God made them male and female. 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 they are no longer two, but one flesh.’ Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
Genesis 1:27 (NIV) says: “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Genesis 2:24 says: “A man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.”
But just a man and woman together is not enough. We need a third partner in marriage: God.
Ecclesiastes 4: 9 – 12 (NIV) ends with the idea that a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
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.
But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up.
Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?
Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.
God, husband, and wife is a cord of three strands that is the originally intended Trinity.
The strands of connection are broken by adultery, so there are warnings in the Old and New Testaments about that.
Proverbs 5:15-23 (NIV) warns men:
Drink water from your own cistern, running water from your own well.
Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams of water in the public squares?
Let them be yours alone, never to be shared with strangers.
May your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife of your youth.
A loving doe, a graceful deer—
may her breasts satisfy you always,
may you ever be intoxicated with her love.
Why, my son, be intoxicated with another man’s wife?
Why embrace the bosom of a wayward woman?
For your ways are in full view of the LORD, and he examines all your paths.
The evil deeds of the wicked ensnare them; the cords of their sins hold them fast.
For lack of discipline they will die,
led astray by their own great folly.
In this verse, instead of the cords being husband, wife, and God, the cords are those of sin, and they bind a person in a trap.
Hebrews 13:4 affirms this Old Testament standard: “Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral” (NIV).
In addition to sexual morality, we need the virtues of kindness, selflessness, generosity, patience, and other virtues to make a marriage work.
(1 Peter 3:7, NIV) says, “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
Peter links the relationship between husband and wife to the ability to communicate with God in prayer.
If the cords between husband and wife are interrupted, the line of communication with God is interrupted too.
With faithfulness and the practice of other virtues (character education), we can keep the cords between ourselves and our spouses strong as well as strengthen the third cord of the Trinity—our relationship with God.
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