Marriage

By Bryan Craig

Scripture:  “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is head of the church, His body, of which He is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church; for we are members of His body.”  Ephesians 5:22-30

Thought:  Paul, who was not married, gives a strong admonition regarding marriage. He speaks to wives and husbands, and in each case, he draws parallels to our relationships with Christ. He speaks into marriage as a refining place, which is reflective of where we are in the Lord.

Marriage can be a beautiful, pure expression of our abiding relationship with Christ, if each person is humble, submissive, and obedient. Wives are to submit control to their husbands, but at the same time, husbands are to serve their wives in a way that brings out the very best in them. A man is to love his wife as much or more than he loves himself. Men are called to cleanse our wives with the Word and help make them holy.

A Christ-centered, unified marriage is the greatest example of how we as believers connect to form one body, and no doubt, this is a foreshadow of heaven.

Application:  Husbands and wives, let this Scripture minister to our hearts and to our marriages. With a 50-percent divorce rate in America, even among Christians, we know marriage is not easy. Does our marriage reflect our relationship with Christ?

How could living out this Scripture change and even save our marriages? Let’s journal through this Scripture, paying more attention to our own responsibility than thinking how our spouse should change, even though, perhaps, they do need to change.

Response: Is the Lord prompting you to do something? Write a prayer in your journals, surrendering your marriage to the Lord. Pray that you can abide in Him so that you can abide in your marriage.

Do you need to take your spouse by the hand, look them in the eye, ask for forgiveness, and say a prayer of consecration before the Lord?