Marriage Problems Started in the Garden

You may not know that marriage problems started in the Garden. The same issues that occurred there also happen daily in marriages now. Please pay attention to the first three chapters of Genesis, as they lay the foundation for relationships and marriage, both the design and the struggles.

Relationship of Adam and Eve

You most likely know that sin is the root of all relationship problems, but the relationship between Adam and Eve also played a crucial role in that original sin.

To verify an essential element, read the following verses.

Genesis 2:23-25 (NKJV)—And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.

Ephesians 5:25, 30-31 (NKJV)—Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her…For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

First, note that the word used for the woman in Gen 2:24-25 is “wife.” Second, if you are unfamiliar, the context of the passage in Ephesians pertains to marriage. Third, the passage quoted in Ephesians 5 is from Genesis 2:24.

The simple and obvious implication is that Adam and Eve were married.

What's the Big Deal? 

Think about it. The account of the original sin in Genesis 3 happened in the context of marriage. In fact, the original sin occurred in the context of a marriage that was operating incorrectly. If you study that marriage during the first sin, you can see what they were doing right and wrong. That could be some valuable insight for marriages and relationships today.

It is easy to be critical of Adam and Eve. “How could they mess everything up so horribly when they were in a perfect environment?” In fact, some people think that Adam and Eve were perfect, so how did they end up sinning?

They were not perfect. God’s Word does not indicate that they were perfect, innocent, and sinless, yes, but not perfect. In fact, they were two people not unlike us, except they had not sinned, lived in an ideal environment, and had only one possibility for sin.

So, if they sinned, what does that say about us? Are we perhaps just as likely to make the same mistakes, to be just as guilty as they?