One of the things that will ultimately destroy a relationship is disunity. When disunity occurs, arguments become frequent, and those involved in the relationship no longer have the same goal. Disunity prompts us to think only of ourselves and our needs. If we want to have growing, thriving relationships, especially marriage relationships, we have to focus on unity. Relationships that are unified cannot be easily defeated. They can withstand the storms that life brings.
Scripture emphasizes the importance of unity, particularly in marriage relationships. In fact, the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, addresses unity between husbands and wives in Genesis 2. This chapter introduces us to the first two people ever created who were also husband and wife: Adam and Eve. God created Adam first. When Adam spent time exploring the animals God had created, it became clear that no one was like him. He was the only human being, and the animals did not meet Adam’s need for companionship. Enter Eve. After Eve was created, Adam celebrated that finally, there was someone like him (verse 23). After this moment in Genesis 2, the author of Genesis took a break in telling the story of Adam and Eve and gave commentary about marriage. He wrote, “This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one” (verse 24). Rather than living for themselves, this verse explains that husbands and wives are to live as one. Unity is essential not just for marriage but also for relationships. The more we read and study Scripture, the more we read that followers of Christ are also to live unified as one (1 Corinthians 1:10-12).
When you and I partner with our spouses or loved ones and work together as one unified body of Christ, we accomplish more than we could on our own. This is because a body is meant to work together. For example, my arm and my leg are not fighting against each other. Instead, they are working together as one unified body. This unity is what we are called to in the body of Christ, in our marriages, and all of our relationships. Let’s be people who, out of our love for our spouses, family members, and members of the body of Christ, work together in unity for the same purpose: glorifying Christ and demonstrating His love to the world.
How can you specifically play a role in maintaining unity in your relationships? If you are married, how can you play a role in keeping unity in your relationship with your spouse? Maybe you can choose to speak words that will encourage your spouse and choose to think about how you can serve your spouse, even when that means putting aside your own desires and needs. For everyone, how can you play a role in keeping the unity in the body of Christ starting today? Maybe that looks like serving by using the gifts God has given you to help keep the body strong and supported. However you are able, commit to playing a role of keeping the unity in your relationships, especially the unity in your marriage relationships and the body of Christ. Ask God to help you as you seek to live out His call to remain unified.
So the creation of the heavens and the earth and everything in them was completed. 2 On the seventh day God had finished his work of creation, so he rested from all his work. 3 And God blessed the seventh day and declared it holy, because it was the day when he rested from all his work of creation.
4 This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, 5 neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. 6 Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. 7 Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person.
8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. 9 The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
10 A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. 11 The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. 12 The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. 13 The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. 14 The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates.
15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. 16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”
18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” 19 So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. 20 He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him.
21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man.
23 “At last!” the man exclaimed.
“This one is bone from my bone,
and flesh from my flesh!
She will be called ‘woman,’
because she was taken from ‘man.’”
24 This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
25 Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.
