one flesh: This expression, of course, pertains to the
first marital intimacy between a new husband and wife. There is more. The idea
of “flesh” introduces readers to the transitory nature of human life. The
enlivening element in life is not the flesh but “the breath of life” (Gen.
2:17; 6:17; see also Job 12:10, “the breath of all mankind”). The impermanent
quality of “flesh” resides in its reduction to dust after death (see Gen. 3:19;
Job 34:15; and Eccl. 12:7). In a figurative sense, however, the words “one
flesh” can also point “to a higher union with the Lord.” Not surprisingly, this
thought directs a reader to oneness, to “the single and unique.” For example,
often a person’s trajectory through life is decided by one big decision. We
look to the stories of the rich young ruler and of Mary, sister of Martha, or
confirmation (see Mark 10:1 and Luke 10:42). The simple commandment to love
embraces within itself the divine will (see Matt. 5:44-46; Luke 6:27-29, 35;
and Gal. 5:14). To break one tenet of the law means being “guilty of all”
(James 2:10). The disciples’ watching for “one hour” would have made a huge
difference for the suffering Jesus (Matt. 26:40; Mark 14:37). This singularity
takes on a sinister tone when Jesus said to the arresting party, “This is your
hour, and the power of darkness,” underscoring the vast consequences of making
the wrong decision in that “hour” (Luke 22:53).
One other coloration pushes itself
forward. It centers on the permanence of the flesh in the eternal scheme of
things. Pual’s line to his Corinthian acquaintances gives focus to this matter.
He wrote, “this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the
kingdom of God” (1 Cor. 15:50). Elsewhere, when reporting of the vision of
Christ that burst upon him while he was going to Damascus, he recorded, “I
conferred not with flesh and blood” (Gal. 1:16). From these two passages, it
appears that flesh does not have a place in the celestial world. Case closed?
Hardly. Rather, the combination of “flesh and blood” sends readers to the
condition of mortality, because in scriptural language, blood carries the life
in a human or animal. People are reminded of this when, in passages that deal
with ingesting blood at meals, they read, “The blood is the life; and thou
mayest not eat the life with the flesh” (Deut. 12:23), and the “flesh with the
life thereof, which is the blood therefore, shall ye not eat” (Gen. 9:4). In
this light, the noncelestial element is blood, not flesh. Clarification arises
in Paul’s words to his friends in Philippi: “We look for the Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like
unto his glorious body” (Philip. 3:21). The crowning observation comes from
Jesus himself when, during a post—Resurrection appearance to his gathered
disciples, he invited them to “handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh
and bones, as ye see me have” (Luke 24:39). As modern commentators have assured
us, “Christ is the true example of this [eternal] union of spirit and flesh.”
(Schweizer, Baumgärtel, and Meyer, TDNT, 7:147) "(S. Kent Brown, The
Epistle to the Ephesians [Brigham Young University New Testament
Commentary; Provo, Utah: BYU Studies, 2023], 508-9)
