Marriage: That the Earth Might Answer the End of its Creation

This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Genesis 2:23-24

If a husband and wife become one flesh through marriage, then what were they as single and unmarried?

As soon as Eve was created, marriage immediately followed after recognition of who and what she was to Adam.

Creation is a process that begins with division. Cells divide to create new cells, nations are created by dividing the land with borders, homes are created by cutting down trees, organizing materials by separating them and then combining them into a structure.

Adam was divided from Eve that they might become a new creation, a married couple. This new creation established the way in which the earth could answer the end of its creation.

And again, verily I say unto you, that whoso forbiddeth to marry is not ordained of God, for marriage is ordained of God unto man. Wherefore, it is lawful that he should have one wife, and they twain shall be one flesh, and all this that the earth might answer the end of its creation; And that it might be filled with the measure of man, according to his creation before the world was made.

D&C 49:15-17

When the Lord spoke these words, “marry” meant specifically to “to unite as husband and wife” (Webster’s 1828 Dictionary) or to unite a male and female in matrimony. To forbid to marry would be to “to command to forbear or not to do” (ibid) what God has instructed which is to unite a male and female as husband and wife.

Whoever seeks to lead people away from the union of male and female in marriage is not ordained of God, and their efforts only serve to frustrate reason for which the earth was created.

Everything God desires of us, all good, all righteousness, requires sacrifice in order for it to be realized. We don’t want to give up that which we value, but without that sense of value, the thing offered would be no sacrifice.

Jesus’ sermon on the mount instructed people to respond to others in ways that defied their natural tendencies: love your enemies, forgive those who wrong you, don’t seek praise from others, take no thought for your life, etc.

God doesn’t require hard things of us, he requires right things of us that we only perceive to be hard because our hearts are not in the right place.

Sacrifice is the path to discovering what is true and enjoying its fruits.

Completing ourselves by creating a marriage after God’s pattern can only be done through sacrifice. We sacrifice many of our own personal desires and objectives, we sacrifice in time, emotions, effort, labor, etc. When children come along, we sacrifice our very lives in creating and providing for them. We further sacrifice as time goes on and we continue to sustain each other in sickness and in health, as we age and our bodies return to the dust.

Thanks to Christ, the darkness of death will end and in Latter-day Saint theology, God’s plan allows for a man and woman to continue as husband and wife beyond the grave where the ultimate potentials of that union are fully realized.

What is there that isn’t worth sacrificing for such great blessings? After all, this is what the world was created for in the first place.