Marriage 101

CHAPTER 1 MARRIAGE IS PATTERNED AFTER CHRIST’S RELATIONSHIP (MARRIAGE) TO HIS CHURCH

Ephesians 5:22-33 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

As God blesses us to begin this study on marriage, we will be revisiting these scriptures again, but for now the focus of concentration is verse 32 (the bold words). I put all these verses in the opening of this book, because they show us the context in which verse 32 was written. When one is blessed to read all these verses together, it is evident that the context is marriage. The marriage written about here is between a man and a woman, not a same sex marriage. When God first ordained marriage it was between a man and a woman (Adam and Eve), and a same sex marriage or homosexuality is an abomination (disgusting) unto Him (Leviticus 18:22). In these verses we are also blessed to see the similarities of the marriage between a man and a woman, and the marriage between Christ and His church. This brings me to the main point that I would like to make in this chapter. The most important subject that the Bible speaks about is Christ and the church. The Bible teaches that God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten Son to be crucified for us, that we might be reconciled unto Him. It teaches that Christ loved us so much that He was willing to die on the cross and pay the expensive dowry, that we could be His bride. Therefore, the point I’m driving at is, if Christ and the church is not only the main theme of the Bible, but the most important truth in the Bible, then where does this place marriage? God patterned marriage after the pattern of Christ and the church. Therefore, Christ’s relationship to His church would show us how important marriage is in the eyes of God. By understanding this truth alone, it grants the church a greater ability to understand marriage, because we understand our relationship with Christ, our responsibilities to Him, and His responsibilities to us. The more we are blessed to understand Christ’s relationship to the church and what our relationship to Christ should be, the more we will be blessed to understand our role in our marriage. (A quick note before we go any further. Any time the wife doesn’t know how she should treat her husband, she should think of how the church should act towards Christ in this situation, and any time the husband doesn’t understand how to treat his wife, he should think of how Christ would treat His church in this situation. As God blesses us to continue in this study, this will become more evident.) Remember, marriage is patterned after Christ’s relationship (marriage) to His church; consequently, the more we understand about that relationship, the more we will know about God’s standards for marriage, and the more ability we will possess to have a marriage based upon God’s prescribed order for it. God ordained marriage; therefore, it would seem very probable that He should be the One that knows the most about it. He teaches us about it in the Bible, so if we are going to have a Godly marriage that is full of every blessing God ordained for it, it would only make sense to follow His instructions.