EphesiansEgzanp

If you’re not married, I think it’s really easy to think that these two passages in Ephesians aren’t relevant. While it’s great advice, Paul uses marriage as a metaphor for a greater takeaway. He uses his letter to Ephesus to explain and retell the Gospel story and to show them how that should affect all aspects of their lives, how the Gospel should affect all aspects of our lives today. In Ephesians 5:22-27, Paul uses a wife to demonstrate the church's relationship with Jesus. Ephesians 5:28-32 uses a husband to demonstrate Jesus’s relationship with us (the church).

The illustration of marriage is intended to show that men ought to love their wives because marriage constitutes unity, and in that same vein, we should love Jesus and the Church because we cannot detach ourselves from either. As Christ followers, we are never acting in isolation. Every action of love lifts up the body of Christ, and in return, every unloving action reflects negatively on the body of Christ. “After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church –” (5:29) Like Jesus, we should love and care for His church, feeding, clothing, and caring for them just as we would care for ourselves.

Prayer Points

• Thank God for always choosing to pursue a close, unified relationship with us.
• Ask God to show you how you can love others as you love yourself.
• Ask God if there is anything that you need to leave behind in order to pursue him fully.