marriage | Daily Inspiration

The Equality of the Sexes Originates from the Relationship of Love

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1972

When we observe the birthplace of civilizations from a geographical point of view, we see that they developed based on the conditions of climate, during the course of world history. Then what kind of place is most ideal? We can conclude that the ideal location is one that has four seasons and connects the sea to the land. In terms of climate, it should be a region with four seasons. It should be a peninsula, as well as a region where the four seasons are distinct. What is a peninsular region? The land symbolizes heaven, and the water symbolizes the sea. The peninsula connects these two. That is the reality of the world. That is how it works with all the principles of heaven and earth. In that sense, the Italian peninsula, as a peninsular region, contributed to world culture. This was the first great staging-post for past civilizations. You should be aware that this peninsular civilization centered on Rome, a region with an integrated civilization, had emerged with the authority of the past ages in history. It had also passed through the Egyptian civilization and Greek civilization to become a comprehensive area. (107-300, 1980.6.8)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 770

On the day you are really born as God’s son…. Amongst the innumerable stars, do you think there is a realm of diamond stars or not? Think about it. You want to have diamonds, don’t you? You can’t say there isn’t a star made just of gold. It is possible. How rich God, our Father, is! Have you ever thought about that? We can travel this infinite universe in a moment. Are you interested? Are you truly interested? If so, what we need to do is observe the normative laws in accordance with God’s commands: “Don’t do this!” or “Do that!” This is possible only when you observe what God says to do or not to do. It is only logical that this becomes impossible if you live according to your selfish desires.
Can you abide by what God says to do or not to do? Since human beings have duality, they consist of mind and body. Since the mind is the subject partner, and the body the object partner, mind and body must be united. Is that right or wrong? (116-174, 1982.1.1)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Ethics of Married Life

2. Relations between the Sexes: Different Responsibilities but Equality in Love

The equality of the sexes originates from the relationship of love. Is a woman a match for her husband in physical strength? Can she equal him in jumping? Externally, a man is better than a woman in many respects. Yet a woman is better in expressing love; this makes them equal. There is equality between the sexes—between woman and man—only through love. (209:208, November 29, 1990)

Men Are the Protectors and Maintainers of Women

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1451

3.3. True Parents’ instructions to
Registered Families
a. Steadfast defense of the pure lineage
b. Settlement of unchanging heart
c. Education of children in practicing
true love
d. Breaking down of national boundaries and cross-cultural marriage
e. Restoration of the homeland and establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven
f. Memorization of Hoon Dok Gyeong
and Divine Principle
g. Fulfillment of the Family Pledge
h. Settlement of Noon
(333-233, 2000.9.26)
Richard: “Education of children in practicing true love” means teaching sexual abstinence before marriage.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1266

Humankind needs True Parents. Why is this so? For the first time in history, we are able to connect to the axis of love. This is unprecedented, and there will not be another event like this in the future. You must know this clearly. There is only one axis. There cannot be two. That axis is none other than true love. (137-108, 1985.12.24)

Throughout history, there has never been even one person who was victorious in the name of God as a representative of all men in the world. That is why up until the present time I have struggled to establish the standard of victory. Members of the Unification Church and I could avoid suffering, but since we know of this Principle, we have to walk the path of suffering. (91-257, 1977.2.23)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Ethics of Married Life

2. Relations between the Sexes: Different Responsibilities but Equality in Love

Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God has given the one more strength than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in the husband’s absence what God would have them guard.
Qur’an 4.34

In the family women’s appropriate place is within; men’s, without. When men and women keep their proper places they act in accord with Heaven’s great norm.
I Ching 37 (Confucianism) Continue reading “Men Are the Protectors and Maintainers of Women”

A Husband and Wife Hold the Key to Each Other’s Holy Place

Strengthening Families and Communities Forum:
#111-Jamal Johnson; Having Sex Outside of Marriage Is Bad for Society

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2523

The Blessed families are equal in value to the world and cosmos. They are like the sons and daughters of Rev. Moon’s direct lineage, who can act on his behalf. When I gave them the Blessing, I did so in order for them to become better than me, by following me. So, once you have the heart of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, you can do the things I did. When God created, He started with such a heart. God, the subject partner, said, “When I speak, my object partners of love substantially appear.” This is absolute faith. Upon this, He meets the partner of absolute love. To be an owner of love, a partner of love is indispensable. That is why even God Himself absolutely obeys love. A circular movement arises whenever we adopt an absolute response. (301-74, 1999.4.16)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 941

If you invest your entire life in true love and pass to the spirit world, you can meet me in no time just by saying “Father!” wherever you are. You can meet me at once. There is nothing to worry about. When you tune into the heart of love, you will be given the right to participate, stand in the same position, and live together with me. When you call me, I will meet you at once. How wonderful that would be! I would show the whole of the spirit world to such people. There are stars made of diamonds and stars of gold. With my special authority, I may just give you one. I have that special authority. (229-164, 1992.4.11)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Ethics of Married Life

1. The Core Ethic of Conjugal Love: Spouses Are Subject to Each Other

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The way of love is to exalt your spouse a thousand times above yourself. God went through a course of absolute obedience to humanity to reach the realm where He could love us as His object partners. A husband and wife married in God’s love desire to practice just such a high standard of love—the standard of love that God desires from His object partners. Each partner gives the other absolute obedience. Each continually gives and forgets what he or she has given. From that practice, the flower of love blooms between the husband and wife. (288:68-69, October 31, 1997) Continue reading “A Husband and Wife Hold the Key to Each Other’s Holy Place”

Wives, Be Submissive to Your Husbands

Strengthening Families and Communities Forum:
#111-Jamal Johnson; Having Sex Outside of Marriage Is Bad for Society

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2202

Filial sons and daughters should have more worries than their parents. To become children of filial piety, they must display greater concern than their parents, and they must do so in every regard. (155-253, 1965.10.31)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1188

As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the firstborn son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Ethics of Married Life

LOVE IN MARRIAGE is not unfettered emotion; it survives and thrives through the discipline of married life. The path of marriage holds special challenges to a couple committed to a lifetime together. It serves as a crucible for refining character and a school for perfecting love.
Scriptures spell out some of the traditional ethical rules that have informed marriages through the ages. They spell out different but complementary roles in the household. Husbands should honor their wives and wives should obey their husbands. Both spouses should be faithful, sharing everything together and never contemplating divorce. While occasionally these traditional roles have been made to justify a double standard, when rightly understood they describe reciprocal and mutual responsibilities. (See Chapter 20: Women’s Rights for a discussion of equality between the sexes in the larger society.) Father Moon teaches that the ideal of marriage is when the spouses live for the sake of each other, the husband respecting his wife as God’s daughter and the wife respecting her husband as God’s son. Love is the ultimate basis of the equality of husband and wife.

1. The Core Ethic of Conjugal Love: Spouses Are Subject to Each Other

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives also be subject in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, the he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is a profound one, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church; however, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Ephesians 5.21-33 Continue reading “Wives, Be Submissive to Your Husbands”

The Internation Holy Blessin Ceremony Is the Ceremony of Resurrection

Strengthening Families and Communities Forum:
#111-Jamal Johnson; Having Sex Outside of Marriage Is Bad for Society

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2080

The question is, as brave soldiers who are fighting history’s final battle to determine the ultimate victory or defeat, how strong and bold can we be in the face of the coming fierce war? How much can we overcome? Can we be hopeful, brave fighters who can find new resolve even at the point where life and death intersect? We can digest communism if we have the desire to live to fight again, even on the road to death. We need to have the personal conviction that if we cannot win right now, we will fight again after we revive. (61-35, 1972.8.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1401

Once the Blessing of 360 Million Couples is complete, I will no longer conduct any more Blessing ceremonies. From that time on, parents will bless their own children. This will be known as the era of the liberation of the realm of the fourth Adam. There will be no indemnity. In the first and second realms respectively, Adam failed in the Old Testament and New Testament Ages. Even in the Completed Testament Age, we have been persecuted. On entering the era of the liberated realm of the fourth Adam, however, the world will become the one originally envisaged before the Fall. That realm of Adam refers to the whole universe, in which people will form families wherein unfallen parents standing in the position of true parents bless their children, bequeathing the ideal of the family and all internal and external ideals created by God. Thus, the world cannot help but become one. (290-167, 1998.2.18)

FAMILY

THE BASIC FORM OF LIFE

Conjugal Love

4. Marriage Is a Sacred Partnership, Aligning Two Human Beings with the Divine Image

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the root of love, root of life, root of lineage, and the root of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven. At the marriage of Adam and Eve, God would enter into their hearts and experience with them the love of their conjugal union. Then God would be the vertical True Parent, and Adam and Eve the horizontal True Parents. Because each of us would be born with the blood and flesh of these two sets of parents, our minds would be aligned with the vertical and our bodies with the horizontal.
This would form the realm of the harmonious oneness of God and human beings in love. In that realm, people who perfect their love both in mind and body would become God’s sons and daughters. We would enter into a parent-child relationship with God, become God’s princes and princesses, and inherit the entirety of His world. Then, when we perfect husband-wife unity centering on true love, we would form a family that lives in attendance to God. Our family would be the base of peace and of God’s ideal. As man and woman, each being a half of the whole, we would come together to form one body; and as God’s partners we would perfect the ideal of divine love. (254:106, February 1, 1994) Continue reading “The Internation Holy Blessin Ceremony Is the Ceremony of Resurrection”