For the husband is the head of the
wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which He is 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…
“For this reason a man will leave his
father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one
flesh.”
This is a profound mystery—but I am
talking about Christ and the church. However, each of you must love his wife as
he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Scripture
affirms that every aspect of the created world bears silent, but unmistakable
witness to God. Marriage as the only pre-Fall institution was woven into the
foundation of the world.
In the New
Testament, the word “mystery” has a unique meaning. It is something that God
had kept partially or completely hidden from mankind until its full revelation
at the coming of Christ. In this case, the mystery revealed is that the purpose
of marriage—from its institution in the Garden--is to give the world a picture
of the future relationship between Christ and His bride, the church.
Doubtless,
you have heard the phrase beginning, “For this reason a man shall leave his
wife…” many times. Haven’t you ever thought, “For what reason?” The reason, in
part, is that Christian marriage is for the purpose of demonstrating to the
world, through two human beings as they live out their one-flesh, forsaking all
others commitment for a lifetime, just how Christ would love and sacrifice
Himself for His church and how the church would follow in loving submission.
When a man
loves, leads, protects and cherishes his wife, he is giving the world a picture
of Christ-like love. When a wife responds to that kind of leadership with
faith-filled submission (whose meaning is simply to order oneself under another
in service of a common goal), then the world is given an irrefutable witness of
the reality of God’s presence and the goodness of His plans for His children.
Nancy Shirah
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