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 for 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.

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

You wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the Word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, when they see your reverent and chaste behavior… Likewise, you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life. 1 Peter 3.1-2, 7

The husband should give to his wife her conjugal rights, and likewise the wife to her husband. For the wife does not rule over her own body, but the husband does; likewise, the husband does not rule over his own body, but the wife does. 1 Corinthians 7.3-4

Your wife has rights over you. Hadith of Bukhari (Islam) A man is forbidden to compel his wife to her marital duty. Talmud, Erubin 100b (Judaism)

Your wives are as a tilth to you: so approach your tilth when or how you will; but do some good act for your souls beforehand, and fear God. Qur’an 2.223

Teachings of 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)

You who were born as a woman should have the attitude that you will love your husband as God and as the representative of all humanity. Unless you love him more than anyone in the world, you cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

Likewise, you men should know that unless you love only one woman, and love her as God and the representative of all humanity, you cannot love God or humanity. (97:321-22, April 1, 1978)

A wife who lives with true love attends her husband as God. Moreover, she attends him as she would attend Christ, the Lord. Christ is the King of kings; therefore she attends her husband like a king.

When she rejoices in her husband as if she were beholding the Lord, she is lifted up to the value of God’s partner; and as God’s partner, she would manifest the value of God. Likewise, a husband with true love attends his wife as God, as the Bride of Christ, and as a queen. (March 9, 1978)

You should have absolute obedience, absolute sacrifice, and absolute love for God. But before practicing all this for God, first practice it for your wife or for your husband. (97:312, March 26, 1978)

What is the most valuable part of the human body? It is the love organ. What is the love organ? It is the reproductive organ. Does your reproductive organ belong to you? No, it belongs to your spouse. Who decided that? God. It is the way God created heaven and earth.

Everything in creation was created for love. Therefore, no creature has its reproductive organ for its own sake. Each achieves love by offering its reproductive organ to its partner. Connecting with your partner is the only way to complete love. This is the heavenly law.

True love is absolute, unique and unchanging. Do you need true love? Only when you are connected to true love can you become an owner of love who is absolute, unique, unchanging.

What does this mean?

It means that a man alone cannot be the owner of true love. He can perfect his love only through connecting with his counterpart, who is the owner of his reproductive organ.

A woman can perfect her love only when she connects to true love; this means when she takes ownership of her husband’s reproductive organ and her husband takes ownership of hers. (297:156, November 19, 1998)

A husband holds the key to his wife’s holy place, and a wife holds the key to her husband’s holy place. No one can enter it without that key, which is conferred by marriage. Does a man’s sexual organ belong to the man or to his wife? It was not created for the man, but for the woman. Do you understand?

Since the male organ was created for a woman, it belongs to the woman. Therefore, you men cannot use it as you wish. Only your wife can use your organ as she wishes. This is the heavenly law. (130:126, January 1, 1984)

When all men and women recognize that their sexual organ belongs to their spouse and not to themselves, they will bow their heads and become humble when they receive their spouse’s love.

Love comes to you only from your partner. If you do not live for the sake of your partner, what you are doing is not love. (279:123, August 1, 1996)

There is etiquette between husband and wife. A wife should not just walk about the house naked out of a desire to entice her husband. She should first ask him, “Is it okay if I do this?”

Likewise, if his wife is fast asleep, a husband should not wake her up saying, “Honey, come here!” Even in bed the couple should be courteous and respectful of each other. (225:160, January 12, 1992)

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)

All of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards. The ruler is a guardian; the man is a guardian of his family; the lady is a guardian and is responsible for her husband’s house and his offspring; and so all of you are guardians and are responsible for your wards. Hadith of Bukhari (Islam)

So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Genesis 2.21-23

It was right for woman to be made from a rib of man. First, to signify the social union of man and woman, for the woman should neither use authority over man, and so she was not made from his head; nor was it right for her to be sub- ject to man’s contempt as his slave, and so she was not made from his feet. Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica 1.1.92.3 (Christianity)

Woman is as much the creation of God as man is. If she was made from man, this was to show her oneness with him; and if she was, this was to prefigure the oneness of Christ and the Church. Saint Augustine, The City of God 22 (Christianity)

The husband who wedded her with sacred texts always gives happiness to his wife, both in season or out of season. He may be destitute of virtue, or seek his pleasure elsewhere, or devoid of good qualities, yet a faithful wife must constantly revere her husband as a god. Women need perform no sacrifice, no vow, no fast; if she obeys her husband, she will for that reason alone be exalted in heaven… She who, controlling her thoughts, words, and deeds, never slights her lord, resides after death with her husband in heaven, and is called a virtuous wife. Laws of Manu 5.153-65 (Hinduism)

Do not abuse your wife. Women are sacred. If you make your wife suffer, you will die in a short time. Our grandmother, Earth, is a woman, and in abusing your wife you are abusing her. By thus abusing our grandmother, who takes care of us, by your action you will be practically killing yourself. A Winnebago Father’s Precepts (Native American Religions)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
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)

Can a woman win over her husband in a fistfight? She cannot. Can she defeat him by using force? If she uses force, she will be defeated every time.

However, even force is under the dominion of love. When a woman embraces her husband with love, he may pull her and push her, but then he lifts her up and they spin round and round.

For example, I can hold True Mother in my arms and spin her round and round. She says, “I’m so dizzy!” but she is happy. Maybe I will kick her playfully, but even as she complains, “Why are you lifting me up and spinning me around?” she is joyful. We pay no attention to the movements of our feet and our bodies as we spin around in the bosom of love; it is pure ecstasy. (137:217, January 3, 1986)

When you couples begin your families, it is good if the husband leads a public life and the wife is in charge of the home.18 (Blessing and Ideal Family 7.3.3)

A wife should be obedient and supportive of her husband. Of course, for this to work, the husband should fulfill his responsibility toward her. (Blessing and Ideal Family 7.1.6)

Wives, do you resent your loving husband for being in a higher position than you? Husbands, do some of you dislike your beloved wife because she is better than you? The two of you are one. One! Once you become one, you can freely go wherever you want: you can come up from below, come down from above, or stay in the middle. There are no obstacles. (91:141, February 6, 1977)

In your family, do you respect your father but regard your mother as insignificant? Do you celebrate your father’s birthday magnificently but do not even remember your mother’s birthday?

Even non-believers know that the relationship between husband and wife should be harmonious like heaven and earth. Harmony arises when opposites come together. There is harmony among your eyes, nose, ears, and lips because opposites come together.

Likewise, only when a father and mother come together can they embrace everything in the world. The father alone cannot do it; it is impossible. These days the world puts the man first. Therefore we must promote a movement for women’s liberation, one that deals with the fundamental issue.

In the Principle perspective, the husband should obey his wife for the first three years of marriage. That is the proper course of restoration.

Since Adam and Eve fell together, they must climb up together through a path of re-creation. (21:194, November 20, 1968)

The Good and the Bad in Husbands and Wives

A good wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life. She seeks wool and flax, and works with willing hands. She is like the ships of the merchant; she brings her food from afar. She rises while it is yet night and provides food for her household and tasks for her maidens. She considers a field and buys it; with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard. She girds her loins with strength and makes her arms strong. She perceives that her merchandise is profitable. Her lamp does not go out at night. She puts her hands to the distaff, and her hands hold the spindle… She opens her mouth with wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue. She looks well to the ways of her household, and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children rise up and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her, “Many women have done excellently, but you surpass them all.” Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. Proverbs 31.10-31

Socrates’ wife Xanthippe would first abuse him and then throw water at him. He once joked, “Did I not say that Xanthippe was thundering now, and would soon rain?” When Alcibiades said to him, “The abusive temper of Xanthippe is intolerable,” he replied, “But I am used to it, just as I should be if I were always hearing the noise of a pulley, and you yourself endure to hear geese cackling.” To which Alcibiades answered, “Yes, but they bring me eggs and goslings.” “Well,” rejoined Socrates, “and Xanthippe brings me children.” Once, she attacked him in the market-place and tore his cloak off; his friends advised him to fight her off with his hands. “Yes?” said he, “And while we are boxing, you may all cry out, ‘Well done, Socrates! Well done, Xanthippe!” Socrates used to say, “A man ought to live with a restive woman. A horseman who can handle violent-tempered horses can easily handle all the others. Likewise, after handling Xanthippe, I can live easily with anyone.” Socrates (Hellenism)

Sujata, the young wife of an eldest son of a rich merchant, Anathapindika, was arrogant, did not respect others and did not listen to the instruction of her husband and his parents. Consequently, some discord arose in the family. One day the Blessed One came to visit Anathapindika and noticed this state of affairs. He called the young wife, Sujata, to Him and spoke to her kindly, saying, “Sujata, there are seven types of wives:

A wife who is pitiless, corrupt in mind, Neglecting husband and unamiable, Inflamed by other men, a prostitute bent on murder, Call that wife a slayer! A wife who would rob her husband of his gains— Though little be the profit that he makes, Whether by craftsmanship, or from his trade, or by the plough— Call that wife a robber! The slothful glutton, bent on doing nothing, A gossip and a shrew with strident voice, Who brings to low account her husband’s zeal and industry— Call that wife a master!

Who with loving sympathy, Just as a mother for her only son, For husband cares, and over his stored-up wealth keeps watch and ward— Call that wife a mother! Who holds her husband in the same regard As younger sister holds the elder born, The meek in heart, who in his every wish her husband serves— Call that wife a sister!

And she who is as glad her lord to see As boon companions long apart to meet, A gracious character of gentle birth, a fond helpmate— Call that wife a friend! If fearless of the lash and stick, unmoved, All things enduring, calm, and pure in heart, She bear obedience to her husband’s word, from anger free— Call that wife a handmaid! Now she who’s called: a mistress, slayer, thief, Who’s harsh, immoral, lacking in respect, when death comes Will wander in the miseries of hell. But mother, sister or companion, slave, In precept long established and restrained, when death comes— Will wander in the happy heaven world.

These, Sujata, are the seven kinds of wives a man may have; and which of them are you?” “Lord,” said Sujata, “let the Exalted One think of me as a handmaid from this day forth.” Anguttara Nikaya 4.91, Sujata Sutta (Buddhism)

If you marry a man and you want to be certain of always retaining him, work for him. With work you will always be able to retain your hold on men.

If you do your work to the satisfaction of your husband, he will never leave you. Remain faithful to your husband. Do not act as though you are married to a number of men at the same time. Lead a chaste life.

If you do not listen to what I am telling you and you are unfaithful to your husband, all the men will jeer at you. They will say whatever they wish [and no one will interfere]. Do not act haughty toward your husband.

Whatever he tells you to do, do it. Kindness will be returned to you if you obey your husband, for he will treat you in the same manner. A Winnebago Elder’s Instructions (Native American Religions)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
What is the problem with families today? Isn’t it that both the husband and wife are insisting, “Live for my sake” and “You must love only me”? Such a selfish attitude is characteristic of Satan, so God will leave such a family.

Once Satan enters a family, it breaks down. The parents raise the children, insisting, “You must live for us.” The children tell their parents, “Father, mother, live for me.” They each want the other to live for their sake, so the family breaks apart. (69:87, October 20, 1973)

Wives often lie to their husbands, and husbands to their wives, in order to hide things from each other. Each tries to possess a realm over which they have sole control. If your family is like this, you are still connected with Satan’s world. (396:257, November 10, 2002)

When a wife suggests to her husband, “Please do this,” he answers, “Yes.” When the husband suggests to his wife, “Please do this,” she answers, “Yes.” Is it right when a husband and wife obey each other like that?… Should the central point of a marriage be the husband, the wife, or their love? It should be love. (91:220, February 20, 1977)

It is not easy being a husband. Although you come home tired from work, you still have responsibilities toward your wife. Although your work was full of difficulties and aggravations, you still have responsibilities toward your wife.

The greater the difficulties, the greater are your responsibilities toward your wife. The fact that you are tired is no excuse. The same is true for you wives. It does not matter whether you like your husband or do not like your husband; you still have responsibilities toward him. The basic rule is joint responsibility.

Your spouse stands before you as God’s representative on earth. He or she is in a unique position as God’s representative, more than any other person in the nation or any other person on earth. Husbands and wives who have thoughts other than this while they live on earth will go to a fearful hell.

Likewise, as parents, you have to be careful that you never cause your children to say, “Our mother and father are always fighting.” If your children see you like that, then regardless of how well you do otherwise, you will end up in hell.

Rather, you should act in such a way that your children say, “Our father represents God. He is God in our home.

Our father is our home’s president. Our father is our home’s saint.” They should say the same things about their mother. The sages of old had a saying, “All is well when there is harmony at home.”

In the Unification Church, we go a step further and call for “harmony with Heaven.” We must create harmony with Heaven everywhere in the cosmos. (101:41-42, October 28, 1978)

A woman who sometimes gets hysterical, crying, “Eeek!” needs a mate who can comprehend her ways. When she gets upset at her husband, calling, “John!” he should calmly reply, “Oh, yes?” He should not snap back at her, “What do you want now?” Instead he should take his time, slowly turn to face her, and say, “Yessss?” [making a face]. The rockiest and steepest mountain has the loudest and strongest echo. When you shout at it, “Bee!” the mountain answers with a resounding “Boo-oom.” A husband should give that kind of echo to his wife.

When his wife nags him, “Ng, ng, ng,” he responds, “umm, umm, ummmm.” A true man has such a nature, something that is mysterious to his wife. He should be different from her and not just react to whatever she says. (118:225-26, June 6, 1982)

When a husband and wife have separate bank accounts and say, “This is my money and that is your money,” is that perfect love? Perfect love goes beyond this and says, “My money is as much yours as it is mine.”

Would you want to set preconditions on your partner before you get married, or would you ask only for love? Does a person who requires his or her partner to sign a prenuptial agreement really trying to love or just pretending to love?

Perhaps he or she is using love. That is not our way; we should live for love. Marriage means gathering together all your power, knowledge, money, and yourself, and putting everything in one package to present to your husband, asking only for his love in return. (92:192, April 10, 1977)

When a true husband or true wife encounters difficulties, he or she does not weep and complain, “Because of that terrible husband…” or “because of that terrible wife, I am ruined.”

Instead, they weep repentant tears, saying, “Because I was lacking in devotion, I could not make my husband happy,” or “I could not make my wife happy.” The husband and wife who live together in this manner are a true husband and a true wife. (204:41, June 29, 1990)

Who is a true wife? A true wife determines that she was born for her husband, lives for him and would die for him. Only in that place can she be a true wife. Who is a true husband? A true husband determines that he was born for his wife, lives for her and would die for her.

The ideal of God’s creation lies in this, though most people don’t realize it. As we practice this, we come to understand the principle: We exist to live for the sake of others. Only by living in this manner can we find true love.

Since God set up this principle, it is the only path for humans to find happiness and hope. (77:293, April 25, 1975)

Divorce is hateful to God; spouses should be faithful till death and Beyond

The lawful thing which God hates most is divorce.19 Hadith of Abu Dawud (Islam)

Some Pharisees came up to him and tested him by asking, “Is it lawful to divorce one’s wife for any cause?” He answered, “Have you not read that he who made them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder.” They said to him, “Why then did Moses command one to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?” He said to them, “For your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another, commits adultery.” Matthew 19.3-9

The Lord is the witness between you and the wife of your youth, because you have broken faith with her, though she is your partner, the wife of your marriage covenant. Has not the Lord made them one? In flesh and spirit they are his. And why one? Because he was seeking godly offspring. So guard yourself in your spirit, and do not break faith with the wife of your youth. For I hate divorce, says the Lord God of Israel. Malachi 2.14-16

God has indeed heard (and accepted) the statement of the woman who pleads with you concerning her husband and carries her complaint to God; and God hears the arguments between both sides among you. Surely God is Hearing, Seeing. If any men among you divorce their wives by zihar, calling them their mothers, they are not their mothers; none can be their mothers except those who gave them birth. They utter words iniquitous and false.20 Qur’an 58.1-2

The husband receives his wife from the gods; he does not wed her according to his own will; doing what is agreeable to the gods, he must always support her while she is faithful. “Let mutual fidelity continue until death”; this may be considered as a summary of the highest law for husband and wife.21 Laws of Manu 9.95, 9.101 (Hinduism)

They continue by legislation to attack the indissolubility of the marriage bond, proclaiming that the lawfulness of divorce must be recognized and that the antiquated laws should give place to a new and more humane legislation. Many and varied are the grounds put forward for divorce, some arising from the wickedness and the guilt of the persons concerned, others arising from the circumstances of the case… in a word, whatever might make married life hard or unpleasant… Opposed to all these reckless opinions stands the unalterable law of God, fully confirmed by Christ, a law that can never be deprived of its force by the decrees of men, the ideas of a people or the will of any legislator: “What God hath joined together, let no man put asunder.” Pope Pius XI, Casti Connubi (Christianity)

It floats about, that boat of cypress wood, There in the middle of the Ho. With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead, He was my mate; And I swear that till death I will have no other. O mother, O Heaven, Why will you not understand me? It floats about, that boat of cypress wood, There by the side of the Ho. With his two tufts of hair falling over his forehead, He was my only one; And I swear that till death I will not do the evil thing. O mother, O Heaven, Why will you not understand me?22 Book of Songs, Ode 45 (Confucianism)

A virtuous wife who, after the death of her husband, constantly remains chaste even though she have no son, will reach heaven just as do men living a life of renunciation. Laws of Manu 5.160 (Hinduism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
When man and a woman become husband and wife, their relationship should be eternal.

If the beginning was good, the end also should be good. It should remain constant. If you were happy in the beginning, you should be happy at the end. (86:109, March 14, 1976)

Children who grow up in a loving home become anxious and distressed if hear that their parents want to divorce. Good children will claim, “I am your child, the union of both of you. You should make any kind of compromise for me.

Please be the great parents I know you are. I need you.” We should teach young people that this claim is just: their parents have no right to divorce due to their parental responsibility for their children.

Because of their love for their children, parents do not have the right to even contemplate divorce. Young people in this country should assert their rights and launch an anti-divorce movement. (October 23, 1977)

Young people: do not think that if you do not like their spouse you can choose to divorce her. The universe is not made that way. If you value yourself, you should value love just as much.

Therefore once you are bound together as husband and wife, you have to maintain that relationship for eternity. All human beings are destined to walk this path. That is where the value of a human being lies. (117:292, April 11, 1982)

God is the absolute being. God is one, not two. Adam and Eve had the characteristics of God, so they were also absolute beings. Adam was created with God’s male characteristics, and Eve was created with God’s female characteristics—these characteristics are absolute.

The love that can unite the inner [male] and outer [female] characteristics is absolute love; even God obeys it absolutely. Therefore love regards each husband and wife as the one and only couple in the universe.

They are absolute, eternal, and unchanging. Yet because couples do not understand this principle, they divorce. As long as you maintain your foundation in this principle, you can never divorce. (226:171, February 4, 1992)

Why do a husband and wife fight? They fight because they each want to receive love. Couples who only want to receive love will not last. A family whose members only want to receive love will fall apart. But a family whose members are determined to give love to each other will not break down. It will survive, even if others wish it ill. Love that prompts us to live for each other is eternal love. (36:76, November 15, 1970)

If a wife is boastful and despises her husband, she puts herself in hell. What is hell? It is the universe’s trash can [for people who lack love]. However, even if a wife is on the verge of plunging into the deepest hell, if she has a righteous husband who holds on to her hand, saying, “I will stay with you, no matter what,” then she will not go to hell. The same is true when a wife does that for her husband. This is the gospel of all gospels. (161:324, March 8, 1987)

When a bride-to-be or husband-to-be is asked, “How long will you love your spouse?” If he or she answers, “As long as my spouse is young,” would their partner be happy with that? Rather, the answer should be, “I will love my spouse until death, and further, for eternity.”

Eternity encompasses the future and beyond. When you say that you will love your spouse until your death, it means that you will love and give everything you have to him. Am I right? The term “eternity” covers all, and “until death” means to love everything about your spouse. We can be satisfied with nothing less. (37:24, December 22, 1970)

The Trouble with Polygamy

The possession of many wives undermines a man’s moral nature. Srimad Bhagavatam 11.3 (Hinduism)

You will not be able to deal equally between your wives, however much you wish to do so.24 Qur’an 4.129

Whoever has many wives will have troubles in surfeit. He will be deceitful, he will lie, and he will betray to have them together; it is not certain that he can have peace to pray well. Yoruba Poem (African Traditional Religions)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
When a woman marries a man, should she have relationships with only one man, or with hundreds? There must be only one man in her life. Why only one? It is for true love. To achieve absolute true love, we marry only one person. (122:234, November 14, 1982)

There is only one person in the universe whom you are meant to marry. Therefore, consider that you and your spouse are the only two people in the universe. You should abide in that first love, which only one man and one woman can share. Then God will abide with you. (265:251, November 23, 1994)