Wedding Day Sermon

Two Becoming One: Covenant, Companionship, And The Love That Holds

Friends, we have gathered today for one of the most beautiful moments a community of faith can witness. Two people are standing before God, before this congregation, and before one another to make promises that will shape the rest of their lives. That is no small thing. It is, in fact, a holy thing. And because it is holy, we do not want to simply celebrate it with flowers and music and tears, though all of those have their rightful place. We want to open the Word of God and let Scripture tell us what is actually happening here today.

We are going to look at two passages together. The first is from the very beginning of the human story. The second comes from the lips of Jesus on the night before He died. Both of them have something urgent and beautiful to say to this couple and to every married person in this room.

The Foundation: Genesis 2:18-24

In Genesis 2:18, God says something that stops the reader in their tracks. He says, "It is not good for the man to be alone." This is the first time in the entire creation account that God looks at something and calls it not good. The light was good. The land and sea were good. The living creatures were good. But aloneness, God says, is not good.

Now notice what God does not do. He does not simply give the man a task to fill his time. He does not give him a longer list of responsibilities. He gives him a companion, someone who corresponds to him, someone who is genuinely like him and yet genuinely different. The Hebrew word used here is often translated helper, and it is a word of dignity, not subordination. The same word is used elsewhere in the Old Testament to describe God Himself as the helper of His people. This is not a lesser role. This is an essential one.

Then in verse 24, Moses draws the great conclusion that Jesus Himself will later quote: "This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh." Three movements are packed into that single verse. There is leaving, the breaking of one set of primary bonds so that a new one can be formed. There is bonding, a word that in Hebrew carries the idea of clinging, of holding on with determination. And there is becoming one flesh, a union that is physical, emotional, spiritual, and covenantal all at once.

What God is describing here is not a contract between two parties who agree to certain terms and can renegotiate when the terms become inconvenient. He is describing a covenant, a binding, permanent, self-giving union that reflects something about the very character of God.

The Center: John 15:9-12

Now we move to the upper room, the night before the cross. Jesus is speaking to His disciples, and He says in John 15:9, "As the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Remain in my love." Then in verse 12 He gives them a command: "Love one another as I have loved you."

The word Jesus uses for love here is agape. It is not the love of warm feelings, though feelings are not wrong. It is the love of will and decision and sacrifice. It is the love that does not depend on the other person being easy to love. It is the love that goes to a cross.

And Jesus tells His disciples, and He tells every married couple, to remain in that love. The word remain means to stay, to abide, to make your home there. Christian marriage is not simply two people who love each other. It is two people who are both abiding in the love of Christ and, from that place of abiding, loving one another with a love that is larger than either of them could manufacture on their own.

This is the secret that no wedding photographer can capture and no reception toast can fully express. The love that will sustain a marriage through the ordinary Tuesdays and the hard seasons and the long years is not the love you brought to this altar. It is the love of Christ that you return to, again and again, together.

The Charge To The Couple

To the two of you standing here today: what you are doing is courageous and beautiful. You are making a covenant, not a contract. You are promising to leave, to cling, and to become one. You are not promising that every day will be easy. You are promising that you will stay.

When the warmth of this day fades into the rhythms of ordinary life, and it will, let Genesis 2 remind you that God Himself said it is not good to be alone, and He gave you to one another as a gift. Treat each other like the gift you are.

And when you find that your own love feels thin or tired or insufficient, let John 15 call you back. Go to Jesus. Abide in Him. Let His love be the well you draw from, because that well does not run dry. A marriage built on two people who are both running toward Christ will find that they are always running toward each other.

May you leave and cling and become one. May you abide in the love that held nothing back. May your home be a place where the grace you have received is the grace you give. And may the God who said it is not good to be alone walk with the two of you every step of the way.

What God has joined together, let no one separate.

Sources Consulted

Hamilton, Victor P. The Book of Genesis, Chapters 1-17. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Eerdmans, 1990.

Mathews, K. A. Genesis 1-11:26. New American Commentary. Broadman and Holman, 1996.

Carson, D. A. The Gospel According to John. Pillar New Testament Commentary. Eerdmans, 1991.

Keener, Craig S. The Gospel of John: A Commentary. Baker Academic, 2003.

Köstenberger, Andreas J. God, Marriage, and Family: Rebuilding the Biblical Foundation. Crossway, 2010.