Skip to main content

What Does Leaving and Cleaving In Marriage Mean?

By
Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Genesis 2:24-25

Wayne Mack has some helpful insights. Taken from the book titled Strengthening Your Marriage by Wayne Mack.

"Leaving" means

1. You establish an adult relationship with your parents and your spouses parents.

2. You must be more concerned about your spouse's ideas, opinions, and practices than those of your parents.

3. You must not be slavishly dependent on your parents for affections, approval, assistance, and counsel. 

4. You must eliminate any bad attitudes toward your parents/your spouses parents, or you will be tied emotionally to them regardless of how far you move from them. 

5. You must stop trying to change your mate simply because your parents do not like him the way he is. 

6. You make the husband and wife relationship your priority human relationship. 

Marriage involves "cleaving" which is translated in the ESV as "hold fast to his wife." Here are some meanings of "cleaving:"

1. Holding fast (cleaving) is the contrast to "leave." This gets at our concept of starting a new life together. 

2. The result of "leaving" and "cleaving" is spelled out in verse 25: "and the man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed." This means that sexual intimacy and relational intimacy are impacted by the husband's and wife's ability to leave their parents and hold fast to one another and become one. 

3. Handling conflict biblically is crucial oneness.

4. Couples should seek to be aware of the hindrances to oneness.

5. Sexual relations within marriage should be kept sacred according to God's view (Hebrews 13:4).


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord, by George Muller

By Anonymous
To Have My Soul Happy in the Lord By George Muller “It has pleased the Lord to teach me a truth, the benefit of which I have not lost for more than fourteen years. The point is this: I saw more clearly than ever that the first great and primary business to which I ought to attend every day was to have my soul happy in the Lord. The first thing to be concerned about was not how much I might serve the Lord, or how I might glorify the Lord, but how I might get my soul into a happy state, and how my inner man might be nourished. “I saw that the most important thing I had to do was to give myself to the reading of the Word of God—not prayer, but the Word of God. And here again, not the simple reading of the Word of God so that it only passes through my mind just as water runs through a pipe, but considering what I read, pondering over it, and applying it to my heart. To meditate on it, that thus my heart might be comforted, encouraged, warned, reproved, instructed. And that thus,...
Post a Comment
Read more

Billy Graham, Holiness, and Leadership

By
A few years ago, I was listening to a radio program on which Marshall Shelley was being interviewed about his new book, The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham (Zondervan, 2005). They were giving away a few copies of the book to those who called in, and something inside me felt compelled to call. But I didn’t have a good question to ask, so I prayed to the Lord and said, “If you want me to have a copy of this book, please give me a good question to ask and I’ll call.” I’m not sure if the Lord gave me this question or if it just popped into my head, but one way or the other, I thought to ask about the connection in Billy’s life between his private pursuit of holiness and integrity, and his public effectiveness and longevity. So, I made the call and was given the last copy of the book they had to give. A couple of years earlier, I had breakfast with some friends and the subject of Billy Graham’s life and ministry came up. We talked mostly about his commitment to integrity in the area...
Post a Comment
Read more

Catechisms: Building a Heritage of Sound Faith - By Pastor Kevin Feder

By
This is an article I (Pastor Kevin) wrote in 2005 and updated in 2017. It is featured in a new resource available through Children’s Desiring God called Discipleship through Doctrinal Teaching and Catechism by Sally Michael.  It is our desire to encourage parents to use a children’s catechism as a tool in building and strengthening faith in children. A simple definition of a catechism is “organized teaching.” Catechisms are not the only things that can or should be used to instruct the next generation, yet they have useful purposes. Listed here are ten specific benefits a catechism can uniquely offer. Hopefully these ten points will help parents understand how a catechism can be effectively used in their families. 1.  A catechism is a very clear and complete gospel message. A catechism is, among other things, a very clear and concise gospel message to children. Everything a child needs to know for salvation is embodied within a catechism. The gospel is truly ama...
Post a Comment
Read more