Marriage

In Ephesians 5:22-33, Paul says that marriage is a picture of the relationship the church is to have to Christ. He is our Husband. When Paul talks about the submission of the wife and the headship of the husband, he says this is how Christ and the church relate to one another (vv. 22-24). When he instructs husbands to love their wives, the comparison all the way through is to Christ and His church. And just in case we might miss the point, Paul spells it out in verse 32: this mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. He's saying that there's something bigger here than the marriage of two people. Marriage is to be a picture of Christ and the church. Marriage was never merely an end in itself. It was created to be a picture of a bigger program. But as long as two people keep focusing on each other's differences and personalities and don't get along, they play right into Satan's hands. He wants to get us focused just on ourselves so that we miss this bigger picture. See if a husband has never learned to love and lead like Christ and a wife has never learned to respond like the church is supposed to respond, they are not only failing to live up to God's expectations for them; they are failing to reflect Christ and His church properly. The church is to respond to Christ the way a wife responds to a loving and self-giving husband. In this way the family functions as a mini-church in its community. Thus the world is never without a witness or without righteousness existing in its midst. God bless your marriage.
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