And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Jesus is being tested by a group called the Pharisees — influential religious leaders who frequently challenged him on points of Jewish law. Their question was about divorce: was it legally permissible for any reason? Instead of engaging their legal categories, Jesus goes back to the very beginning. He quotes Genesis 2:24, from the creation account, where God establishes the first marriage. The phrase 'for this reason' connects back to the fact that the woman was formed from the man's side — they were, at their origin, one. 'Leaving' points to a radical reorientation of loyalty and belonging. 'United' (sometimes translated 'cleave') implies permanence and intentional bonding. 'One flesh' describes the profound union — physical, emotional, and spiritual — that marriage was designed to create.
God, you invented belonging — the deep, costly kind where two people become something together that neither of them is alone. Whether my heart is full or broken today, remind me that love was your idea first, and you haven't given up on it. Teach me to love with more patience and less fear. Amen.
Jesus gets asked a legal question about divorce and responds by talking about creation. That move is worth sitting with. Instead of engaging the loopholes, he goes back to the original design — as if to say: before we argue about the exits, can we first talk about what this was always supposed to be? 'The two will become one flesh.' It sounds poetic until you've lived it — until you've shared a decade of inside jokes and grocery runs and arguments about things you can barely remember, until you've sat with someone in a hospital waiting room at midnight, until their grief has become your grief in a way that defies easy explanation. The slow, sometimes painful, often beautiful process of becoming something together that neither of you is alone — Jesus is saying that was the point all along. Whether you're married, hoping to be, or carrying the weight of a marriage that broke, this verse is worth sitting with not as a rule to enforce but as a picture of what covenant love looks like when it's working the way God imagined it.
Why do you think Jesus responds to a legal question about divorce by going all the way back to the creation story? What does that reveal about how he thinks about marriage at its core?
What do the three words 'leave,' 'unite,' and 'become one flesh' each mean to you personally — and which of the three do you find most challenging or most beautiful in practice?
This verse was originally spoken in a culture where women had very few legal protections in divorce. How should the design of covenant marriage speak into situations of harm or inequality — rather than being used to trap people inside them?
Whether you are married or not, how does this picture of deep, costly, binding love challenge or inspire how you approach your closest relationships?
Is there a relationship in your life — marriage or otherwise — where you have been more focused on the exits than on deepening the connection? What might one small step toward commitment or repair look like this week?
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
Ephesians 5:28
Nevertheless , to avoid fornication, let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.
1 Corinthians 7:2
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
Ephesians 5:31
And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
Genesis 2:21
What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
Mark 10:9
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
Genesis 2:24
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
Mark 10:7
The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband: and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife.
1 Corinthians 7:4
and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined inseparably to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?
AMP
and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
ESV
and said, 'FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH '?
NASB
and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’?
NIV
and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?
NKJV
And he said, “‘This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’
NLT
And because of this, a man leaves father and mother and is firmly bonded to his wife, becoming one flesh—no longer two bodies but one.
MSG