Last week I shared with you how the prophet Jonah was (or was not) being formed into a more loving person. I would be remiss if I didn’t continue the topic of love today. I was reading a bit about the history of Valentine’s Day the other day. There isn’t a lot of concrete evidence that grounds the celebration in history which bears that name. It’s sketchy at best. There appears to be two different men who lived in the Roman world around the 6th Century A.D. who shared the name Valentine and to whom history attributes the modern holiday. Both men were Christian leaders who, as the stories go, performed secret marriages between lovers when it was illegal for Church leaders under Roman law to do so at the time. Sounds scandalous! They really should make a movie about this. It wasn’t until the 1300’s when the English poet Geoffrey Chaucer linked the idea of romantic love with St. Valentine’s Day.
When we consider spiritual formation, we’d be wise to look at the lives of the very first two humans. Adam and Eve were physically and spiritually formed by God as he breathed his breath of life into them. In Genesis 1 and 2 we immediately get a glimpse into the love relationship between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit and we also get a beautiful showing of what love should look like between two people.
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. -Genesis 1:1-2
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness… -Genesis 1:26
What you see here is that the Holy Trinity has been intertwined in a love relationship since before the beginning of time! They have existed with and for each other working together in beautiful harmony, giving and receiving love from one another. Jesus expresses this in John 17. Perfect community for eternity past, present, and future. And then, God decides to share that same love, beauty, and community with mankind. How awesome is that?!
But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.”
24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. -Genesis 2:20-24
God created man and woman for the marriage relationship. Two people who were formed in his likeness who would not only share in his love but share his love with each other. Whether or not we are married, have been married, or want to be married one day, it’s important that we understand how God has shaped us for this most significant love relationship. After all, we all know people who are married or who will one day choose to be so. Not only that, God shows us crucial aspects of his love through the understanding of the marriage relationship.
Author and minister Tim Keller says it like this: “The question of what marriage is for: It is a way for two spiritual friends to help each other on their journey to become the persons God designed them to be…”
He goes on to talk about the oneness of marriage as Adam expresses it when he first sees Eve. He sees one who is like him but different from him. He sees someone who will complement him, challenge him, and meet his needs as he meets hers. No wonder he was so excited to see her! Love, then, is being formed by God to help your partner to grow, change, and become more like Jesus. Our culture would have us believe that real love is allowing people to remain unchanged. Not at all! Love (and marriage specifically) is about the hard work of helping the other person to change, to be like the One who created them in love (and allowing them to do the same for you).
Love and be formed!
-Nathan
Nathan Hinkle
Lead Pastor