Tag: sexual relations

Complexities of the Human Being and the Implications of Marriage pt. 2

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Love:: Lifestyle:: HealthLeave a comment

 …“the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”

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Let’s face it, if two friends can have their souls knitted together because of how they feel toward one another, how much more are two people romantically involved going to be knit together?

We are complicated, complex creations with layers of habits, addictions, quirks and adorable (sometimes annoying?) personality traits. When two people form an attachment, all their layers become one layer, together, intermingled. Soul, spirit (and body in sexual relations). But it’s not so beautifully descriptive if ever the two want to part ways. It’s more like a messy destructive entanglement than a flowing heavenly connectedness.

I think this is why we really weren’t created to be with more than one other person, monogamously. God understood the beauty of becoming one and the devastation it brings when something that is together must now separate, when there is no distinction between the two anymore. I can’t imagine. It hurts bad enough just losing a friend, like David and Jonathan, much less when two people become one bound by sexual relations.

(I know, most people don’t think so much – I get it! I like to think, it’s like a past time activity for me. And writing is how I make sense of things sometimes. In no way am I this methodical in real life.)

Anyway, it becomes more important as a Christian to be mindful of attachment. Let me share these scriptures for reference from 1 Corinthians 6:15-20,

Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself? Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”  But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

And again…

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

1 Corinthians 3.16

So here we have to understand that we are also one with God and that whoever we become one with as a triune being, we then join them with the body of Christ. Now within marriage this is sanctified, true and holy.

Jesus spoke the following,

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.

John 15.5

Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.

John 14.20

In order to write about human beings in this way, I have to almost step out of myself to look objectively at human nature and how we interact with one another. But I love talking about it. People are so skittish about the things of God. Why shouldn’t we be curious about Him? Why shouldn’t we desire to draw near to Him?

God is a mystery. But He let’s us catch up to Him sometimes…

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.

Jeremiah 33.3

Ah! I love Him, I love seeking Him – such a beautiful Person He is.

The Mystery of God

I love peering into the mysteries of the handiwork of God, creation, science, human nature and everything concerning God’s heart. So much inside Him…

I’m there, you are there, in His heart. A heart so big the universe itself cannot expand fast enough to ever fill it – and still – He knows the exact number of every hair on our heads down here on earth. God – indeed He is lovely~

This triune being He has created far exceeds all of mankind’s thoughts about it – we try to define ourselves and who and what we are and want from life – but we can’t clearly form the words, not without His insight.

One must inquire of the Creator to understand the work.

That’s what I’m doing here really, in these posts – inquiring of God about His work. About me, about those around me. That’s all. Just trying to peer into God’s heart~

Don’t Be Afraid to Inquire of God

I love how Jesus wasn’t afraid to just go there sometimes. He spoke knowing people would end up leaving Him, turning their back on Him and walking away. But He spoke the words anyway and didn’t even bother to explain!

John 6:4-5 “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.”

vs 66:  From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.

Communion of course was the reference Jesus was making. We know and understand this because we now see clearly into the mirror of the Cross. But at that time they didn’t and thought He was actually referring to flesh and blood.

All of these sayings, all of these things Jesus is speaking of makes it clear to me we are one with the Lord. And this makes me think before doing something stupid just because my carnal nature (that physical fallen nature of the human being) desires something.

He has fashioned us to also be capable of becoming one if we choose to, monogamously with someone else. This is a beautiful experience because it reflects the oneness God shares with us, His creation.

I might might write more about this in a third post sometime.

The Complexities of the Human Being and the Implications of Marriage pt.1

On By Ashley GatewoodIn Love:: Lifestyle:: HealthLeave a comment

Since about 2016, I’ve been thinking about what it would mean for me to share my life with and create a life together with another person. I always said jokingly (but not so much) that I’d meet my forever partner in the nursing home. I have no plans (who does) of needing a nursing home in later life, but the concept that I’d meet this person around 75 years of age was the point.

But perhaps I won’t wait that long. So I have been considering the impact having another person in my life and specifically the impact of becoming one with them would have on my walk with God. My life is so simple – but I’m fiercely complicated in personality.

So, I may decide this is not the right choice for me at all – marriage that is – but there are many ways to go about sharing ones life with another person.

One thing’s for sure, I have done my best to live life for God because after all – no offense married folk – scripture states that the pinnacle of life is remaining single so that we are free to follow God. The pinnacle isn’t marriage. The pinnacle of American society is marriage – though this is also changing rapidly with younger generations who are finding the binding institution of marriage to be stifling and restrictive.

But really, if you want to become one with another human being, there is a price to pay. And there are consequences which are not always pleasant. I think too much, I know. But then again, I make far less mistakes. There are drawbacks to each approach. So far, mine has worked rather well for me. But let’s get into this, shall we?

What Becoming One With Another Person Really Encompasses

Let’s talk for a moment about the human creation. We are triune beings comprised of these three parts: soul, spirit and body.

The Soul:

Now the soul – to further break it down – is comprised of the mind, will and emotions. It is where the human condition arises, where the battleground exists when we think of doing evil or doing good. The battle is in the soul; the mind thinking the thought, the emotions influencing that thought and the will taking control and putting that thought into action, making it a reality.

Soul: Mind

So the soul is the fallen aspect of the human which occurred when sin entered the world. This is why ‘the washing of the water of the word of God’ is so important – renewing the mind is a daily necessity. The soul and the spirit are like bone to marrow – so closely linked that only God’s word can precisely cut between them to decipher thought from intention. If you think that’s easy, try focusing on why you have a particular thought and whether or not that thought is of any premeditated intention (because intentions can lie dormant in the primitive brain which remains hidden from us). Too deep a subject to get into right now.

Soul: Emotions

Continuing with the soul: Emotions are what influence our actions everyday and either help us or hurt us depending on how renewed our thought-life is (i.e. how much of God’s word is in us, how much of God’s knowledge and wisdom we know). Emotions, still part of the fallen aspect, can be a serious issue if we are unable to control them and think through what we are feeling in a more logical way. Emotions are what cause us to do the wrong thing because it feels right at the moment.

Soul: Will

The last aspect of soul is the will. The will is the power behind everything we do. We can will ourselves to do almost anything as long as fear is kept in check. The will is also part of that fallen state that must be continually renewed – it’s not a one-time deal (there is only one, one-time deal which we’ll get to in a moment.)

The will is what started the building of the Tower of Babel for instance. God said, ‘when they put their minds together in unity, there is nothing they cannot accomplish’. We are such fragile beings, yet because we are made in the image of God, we are the most powerful creation He has made – albeit, without the Holy Spirit, the angels would be more powerful than humans because we still exist in this natural world (ah! but this is another topic altogether! Maybe I’ll write about it sometime.)

The Spirit:

Now the spirit is the true and everlasting part of our triune being. In billions of people, their spirit lies dormant within them because only God can give life to our spirit. (God breathed the breath of life into Adam.) Spiritual death is both life and death apart from God. This is not where you want to be – Christ is the answer to spiritual death. “I am the way the truth and the life. Apart from me you can do nothing”. Listen to how Jesus talks about the human condition and how he remedies all of it:

John 6:35 (paraphrased): I am the bread of life…The bread that I will give is my flesh for the life of the world and he who eats of this bread s/he shall live forever, s/he shall not die.

John 11:25 I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.

This is profound! It is what many intellectuals and scientists long for, eternal life, immortality. But they reject it as coming from a Superior Being as they would call Him. Eternal life cannot be provided by any other means outside of spiritual salvation. This requires Jesus Christ – and this is the world’s stumbling block.

One-Time Deal

The spirit is not in need of renewal but it does need to be fed, so-to-speak, by the word of God. The word is likened to bread, or sustenance which we must eat in order to live. Without the word of God, the spirit will be too weak to contend with the soul (our fallen nature) and we will sin. Ah, the kerfuffle of the Christian walk, the soul always longing for the desires of this world which wrestles against the nature of God and spirit. Thank God for the blood of His Son that redeemed us in spite of our sin nature.

The spirit is the only part of us that gets a one-time deal on life. Once you received Jesus Christ as your savior, there is nothing else that needs to be done. Christ is the only one-time deal, praise God for Him! To understand more about this, you may read this post The Difference Between Righteousness and Holiness.

Now let’s move on to the third aspect of the human being.

The Body:

The body is our tent. It’s what houses all these complex intricacies of mind, will, emotion and spirit. It gives form to the human species and is also fashioned in the likeness of God. Our body is what makes all that we are in soul and spirit autonomous and able to move freely and have our being on this earth. The body is the physical aspect of who we are and the part of us that is mortal.

The human body is passing away – even so, the whole world is at this moment already passing away, temporal and not to be invested in. We are sojourners belonging to the eternal kingdom of God but finding ourselves inhabiting a temporal earth; we are everlasting, immortal beings born into the world for only a time and to save as many as we can that His will in heaven might come to pass on earth. Selah~

To be continued in Part 2

Next time, we will talk about how we are one with God as Jesus describes it in the vine and the branches teaching and how this relates to becoming one with another person. We’ll talk about the interesting statement Paul made concerning the human body being ‘the temple of the living God’ – wow! – and how this also relates to becoming one with another person.

For now, I’ll leave you with a most interesting statement Jesus made, which also caused many of his followers to stumble and stop following him. This stuff isn’t for lazy religious Christians. It’s for those who want to truly understand God and know who they were created to be in God.

John 6:4-5 “Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.”

Now hold on, don’t fall away yet. It’s just starting to get interesting…

Until next time…

Featured Photo by The Humantra