What are the Three Blessings and how do they fulfill God's purpose of creation?
The Three Blessings from Genesis 1:28 represent God's purpose of creation: individual perfection, the establishment of an ideal family, and loving dominion over nature. These blessings are a roadmap for humanity to become God's true children, creating a world of love and harmony. Fulfilling them brings God the greatest joy and establishes the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
God's purpose of creation for humanity, as revealed in the Bible and clarified by the Divine Principle, centers on the attainment of the Three Blessings. These blessings provide a profound blueprint for individuals, families, and society to achieve their highest potential and realize God's ideal, bringing joy to God, who created human beings in His image as His children.
The Biblical Foundation
The foundational command for humankind is found in Genesis 1:28, where God blesses Adam and Eve, stating, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground." This verse lays out God's primordial expectation for humanity. The term "bless" signifies divine empowerment and bestows the capacity and calling to fulfill these directives. God created all things with a purpose, and when He created human beings, He felt great joy, saying it was "very good" (Genesis 1:31). This joy comes from having object partners who resemble Him and return love and happiness. Human beings, as children of God, are His companions of love, created in His image (Genesis 1:27). This initial blessing from God constitutes the core of His purpose for creation.
Divine Principle's Clarification
The Divine Principle clarifies the interconnectedness and specific meaning of the Three Blessings of Genesis 1:28, providing a comprehensive framework for understanding God's purpose of creation and serving as a roadmap for human life.
The First Blessing, "be fruitful," is the perfection of individual character. This means completing one's individuality, resembling God's divine nature and character, and attaining maturity in heart, intellect, and will. Centered on God's love, one's mind and body must fulfill give-and-receive action, integrating all aspects of the self based on conscience. This process transforms the individual into a substantial embodiment of God's wholeness and values, becoming an incarnation of God's word, much like Jesus, who said, "If you see me, you see the Father" (John 14:9).
The Second Blessing, "increase in number," is the establishment of an ideal family. This is achieved when a perfected man and woman, having fulfilled the First Blessing, unite in a God-centered marriage. As stated in Genesis 1:27, God created them "male and female," and Genesis 2:24 says that husband and wife are to "become one flesh." This harmonious unification of male and female reflects God's image and expands God's lineage through children. Through the oneness of husband and wife, children are born, and the couple becomes parents, and the children become siblings, creating a family founded on four kinds of love: parental, conjugal, children's, and sibling love. This family becomes the primary unit where God's love finds its deepest expression.
The Third Blessing, "subdue it" and "rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground," means gaining loving and righteous dominion over the natural world. This is not about exploitation but about harmonious stewardship, where humanity cares for all things with God's heart. It means developing and preserving nature with love, helping creation fulfill its true nature, and revealing the value of all things as object partners to humanity. By applying divine principles and true love, humanity acts as God's co-creators, maintaining and enhancing the natural environment, arts, sciences, and all aspects of the created order, thereby manifesting God's glory throughout the cosmos.
Understanding the Deeper Meaning
When seen through the lens of the Divine Principle, the Three Blessings represent God's original blueprint for bringing about the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. The fulfillment of these three blessings is the perfect image of God, and God is happiest when we fulfill them. This ideal of Heaven on Earth is a world where all people serve God as their parents and consider all humanity as their brothers and sisters, forming one great family under God. The Fall of humankind prevented the fulfillment of these blessings, but God's will is absolute, and He seeks to realize this purpose through the providence of restoration. This fulfillment requires humanity's portion of responsibility, which is conditional upon our choices. The ultimate vision of salvation, therefore, is not merely individual redemption but the establishment of a world where perfected individuals (First Blessing) form ideal families (Second Blessing), who then collectively govern and care for all creation with God's heart (Third Blessing). This interconnected fulfillment of the blessings establishes a comprehensive culture of true love, peace, and harmony, fully realizing God's original purpose of creation and bringing glory to Him.
How the Three Blessings Fit Together
The three blessings are not three separate goals but one structure completed in stages. An individual who has perfected mind and body becomes the first blessing fulfilled, and only such a person can enter the second blessing, a marriage in which husband, wife, and children stand with God at the center — the pattern Scripture calls being one flesh (Genesis 2:24). That completed family, with God above and children below, forms the four position foundation, the smallest unit in which God's love circulates fully and the base on which the third blessing, loving dominion over the created world, can be exercised without exploiting it. Skip the first, and the second collapses; skip the second, and dominion turns into domination. This is precisely what was lost at the Fall and what the whole providence works to restore.
Living the Principle
1. Engage in daily spiritual practices and self-reflection to perfect individual character, aligning your mind and body with God's truth and love. 2. Strive to build a God-centered family, practicing all forms of love (filial, conjugal, parental, sibling) as a foundation for a harmonious society. 3. Exercise responsible stewardship over the natural world and all created things, developing and preserving them with a heart of love. 4. Actively contribute to creating a world where all people live as one family under God, embodying the spirit of brotherhood and sisterhood.
These answers explain the Bible in the light of the Divine Principle, the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Read about the author, Sun Myung Moon.
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Sources and further reading
- The Holy Bible, King James Version — Scripture quoted and referenced throughout the answers.
- The Divine Principle (full text) — The complete text of the Divine Principle, the teaching of Reverend Sun Myung Moon that these answers explain.
- Unification texts library (tparents.org) — Large online library of Unification texts, sermons and collected speeches, including the Cheon Seong Gyeong.
- Short video lectures in English — Playlist of short English video lectures presenting these same principles.