Standing with no Shame

Genesis 2:25
25 The man and his wife were both naked, and they felt no shame.

I wrote a little about this verse today for a bible group, and thought I would expand on it here. The question posed was: Why were they not ashamed of being naked?

They had not yet eaten the apple of the tree of knowledge. No knowledge of good and evil, no need to be ashamed. Which always starts a good debate over whose fault is it that they ate the apple in the first place!? That very answer can be found in this chapter, and it is one that is often overlooked today. “24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” Or in the previous verse : 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh…….. There is no He or She, there is only THEY. They did not become a couple, they did not become partners…..they became one flesh, each accountable for, and to the other. What one does, the other is liable, for they are two acting as one. Notice how it says Holds fast to his wife? We don’t do enough of that in this day and age. Today with all of the self-serving, and self-appreciation that is promoted by the media, and “friends” it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking that we are number one in our lives. ……. Of course the right answer is that first and foremost God is first, all honor and Glory is his, but second, has to be our spouse, for us to put ourselves over our spouses is like taking better care of your arms than your legs. We are not two. We are one flesh, one unit.

When we exchange vows during the wedding ceremony, there is no mention of: I promise to disregard, be jealous of, demean, and demoralize. Quite the opposite, it does not matter if they are the old stand by vows of to have and to hold in sickness and in health, or if it happens to be vows that were written by the elect. The vows are always vows of giving wholly, and un-restrained to the other person. When you think of marriage you think of Love, yet so often that concept is replaced by self-importance. Of course we are all familiar with 1 Corinthians where Paul gives all of the virtues of Love, patience, kind, not self-seeking. All of those qualities should be easy to give, because really if you put some thought into it you would see that you are just giving all of that to yourself. Hence the term your better half. Even in this human world of sin, God has given us a physical partner, someone that will hold us accountable, someone that we can trust.


I know for me there are two people that I can stand naked before (spiritually, emotionally, and physically) and not be ashamed, God and my spouse. I do not think that is a small coincidence!


Peace,
Rev. T