This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
The one-flesh union of husband and wife is a great mystery because it speaks of Christ and the church, and marriage was divinely instituted to illustrate that truth. In that illustration Christ is the bridegroom, head and Saviour, and the church is His bride and body, whom He loves, sanctifies and cleanses to present glorious, holy and without spot. Believers are joined to Him as members of His flesh and bones, dwelling in Him and He in them through personal faith, not by outward membership alone. That union makes each soul His by creation and redemption, a joint heir in His kingdom, called to follow where He leads, keep unity with one another, and hold inseparably to His church. From the same bond come the plain duties of the home, that wives be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ, and husbands love, nourish and cherish their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.
Marriage Points to Christ
The great mystery is that the joining of husband and wife as one flesh speaks concerning Christ and the church. The marriage covenant is a divine institution that is respected and used to illustrate that truth, with the marriage relation illustrating Christ's headship over the church and the church's submission to Christ. The husband is head of the wife even as Christ is head and Saviour of the church.
Marriage is a symbol of the sacred, enduring covenant bond between Christ and the church. Christ came to redeem His people and unite them to Himself by an eternal covenant, like a husband betrothing himself to his bride. The love and unity of husband and wife point to the love and unity between Christ and the church, and a Christian home shaped by divine love, respect, care and loving service is a symbol of the heavenly family and of the great family above.
In that symbolism Christ is the bridegroom and the church is His bride, He the head and the church the body. The church is His body and bride, the Lamb's wife, and each true believer is a member of His body. That union is spiritual and comes through personal faith in a personal Saviour, for outward membership does not save, and believers dwell in Him and He in them unto everlasting life.
The verse reveals a saving love that gave itself to sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the word. By that same love He nourishes and cherishes the church as His own flesh because believers are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones, to present it to Himself a glorious church, holy and without spot or wrinkle or blemish. Marriage vows unite husband and wife in solemn covenant before God to reflect that cherishing care, calling the wife to reverence her husband and the husband to love and cherish her. Human love between husband and wife is taken up into divine love, refined and purified, elevated and ennobled, and united with the divine nature to grow heavenward and bear its precious fruit. The warmth of true friendship and the love that binds husband and wife is a foretaste of heaven. Unfaithfulness by Christ's people is like a wife's unfaithfulness to her husband.
Believers United to Christ
The great mystery is that believers are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones, and because Christ nourishes and cherishes the church as His own flesh they dwell in Him and He in them unto everlasting life. The church is His bride, and each true believer is a member of His body. That union with Christ and the church is spiritual and comes through personal faith in a personal Saviour, and outward church membership does not save. Receiving Him as the bread of life is dwelling in Him and His raising them to everlasting life.
Each believer is married to Jesus Christ as husband by ownership of creation and redemption, for He bought the church as His property, so the soul belongs to Him and its identity cannot be submerged in an earthly husband. The church married to Him becomes a sharer in His kingdom as joint heir with Him, with assurance of being loved as God loves His Son. This spiritual wedlock gives strength to be strong, speak hope and press through obstacles, meaning to approach the Saviour with full assurance of faith, join hands with Him, follow where He leads, do whatever He says and willingly receive His teaching, with the Word as assurance.
Because of that marriage each person has individual responsibility to accept the gospel invitation and walk in the light, and no earthly marriage can excuse separation from Christ. If need be husband must forsake wife and wife husband to practice religious principles and manifest loyalty to God, and if a husband refuses the light the wife must still come. Because of that leaning wholly on Christ, believers are to look to heaven and call upon God as the source of wisdom, grace and efficiency instead of asking counsel of man.
Connection with Christ therefore involves connection with His church, for Christ and His church are inseparable, He the bridegroom and the church the bride, He the head and the church the body. No one can hold to Christ while standing independent of the church and neglecting or despising those appointed to lead and bear responsibilities for the help, encouragement and strength of His people. To pass them by and insist that light must come through no other channel but direct from God repeats the insubordination by which glorious angels fell from dependence on God, and places a person where deception and overthrow are likely, for God places believers in connection with His appointed help in His church in order to be helped by them when judgment and discrimination have been perverted and the spirits cannot of themselves be discerned against the wiliness of Satan. Loyalty to Christ demands faithful performance of church duties as training, and in a church imbued with His life this leads directly to organized service and effort for the world, for the church is organized for service and connection with the church is one of the first steps in a life of service to Christ.
This oneness requires believers to govern speech and spirit by love and keep unity with one another, and that unity lifts them to a higher standard and gives the world convincing evidence that God sent His Son.
Duties in Christian Home
In its setting in Ephesians 5:21-33 the verse gives the distinct and plain duties of husband and wife and the relations that should exist between parents and children. That Bible instruction on the duty of husbands and wives to one another is to be studied diligently for encouragement when discouraged, together with bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and the great work of parents to win their children to a love of the truth.
Wives are to be subject to their own husbands in everything as the church is subject to Christ, and to respect, love, reverence, and counsel with them. Marriage vows unite husband and wife in a solemn covenant before God calling the wife to this reverence. The wife is a cherished partner, not a slave. Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies and as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, nourishing and cherishing them even as the Lord does the church. That love is saving, sanctifying, and cleansing, giving itself to present the church glorious, holy and without spot, wrinkle or blemish. It never degrades a wife by making her a servant to uncontrolled passions, nor rules with a harsh, tyrannical character.
The husband is head of the wife and house-band to bind wife and children together, standing as priest of the household in the Lord's sight with responsibilities he cannot evade whether rich or poor, high or low. When the husband fulfills God's purpose the home is ordered under Christ. In the highest sense Christian husband and wife share the same hope in Jesus Christ, both amenable to God under one Master, living as brother and sister undivided in spirit serving one Lord and Master.
The unity of Christ and the church is the symbol and standard for unity in the home. A husband with a harsh, tyrannical character fails this calling and instead breaks every tie of affection, leaving the family scattered in bitterness and hatred toward one another, a blot upon the earth and woe to the children. He is to watch and pray, keep his soul in communion with God, withstand temptation, do his full duty to his wife and children, and remain under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit so he can mold his children's favorable or unfavorable temperaments into characters the Lord can approve. Although trials arise in married life, husband and wife are to keep their souls in the love of God, with the father regarding the mother of his children as deserving all kindness, tenderness, and sympathy, sharing with her the care and training of dependent children, sustaining her and co-operating with her in wisely, tenderly, lovingly educating their children, and speaking no word of censure or disrespect of each other in the hearing of the children.
These lessons are of the greatest importance yet practiced by few, and if carried out to the letter they would change families. Heeding this instruction makes home life pure and elevated, guarded by holy love. When the home is ordered under Christ its pure affections testify to the world of a happy Christian home. The family relationship is sanctifying, and Christian homes conducted according to God's plan form Christian character.
The one-flesh union of husband and wife is a great mystery because it speaks of Christ and the church, and marriage was divinely instituted to illustrate that truth. In that illustration Christ is the bridegroom, head and Saviour, and the church is His bride and body, whom He loves, sanctifies and cleanses to present glorious, holy and without spot. Believers are joined to Him as members of His flesh and bones, dwelling in Him and He in them through personal faith, not by outward membership alone. That union makes each soul His by creation and redemption, a joint heir in His kingdom, called to follow where He leads, keep unity with one another, and hold inseparably to His church. From the same bond come the plain duties of the home, that wives be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ, and husbands love, nourish and cherish their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.
Marriage Points to Christ
The great mystery is that the joining of husband and wife as one flesh speaks concerning Christ and the church. The marriage covenant is a divine institution that is respected and used to illustrate that truth, with the marriage relation illustrating Christ's headship over the church and the church's submission to Christ. The husband is head of the wife even as Christ is head and Saviour of the church.
Marriage is a symbol of the sacred, enduring covenant bond between Christ and the church. Christ came to redeem His people and unite them to Himself by an eternal covenant, like a husband betrothing himself to his bride. The love and unity of husband and wife point to the love and unity between Christ and the church, and a Christian home shaped by divine love, respect, care and loving service is a symbol of the heavenly family and of the great family above.
In that symbolism Christ is the bridegroom and the church is His bride, He the head and the church the body. The church is His body and bride, the Lamb's wife, and each true believer is a member of His body. That union is spiritual and comes through personal faith in a personal Saviour, for outward membership does not save, and believers dwell in Him and He in them unto everlasting life.
The verse reveals a saving love that gave itself to sanctify and cleanse the church with the washing of water by the word. By that same love He nourishes and cherishes the church as His own flesh because believers are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones, to present it to Himself a glorious church, holy and without spot or wrinkle or blemish. Marriage vows unite husband and wife in solemn covenant before God to reflect that cherishing care, calling the wife to reverence her husband and the husband to love and cherish her. Human love between husband and wife is taken up into divine love, refined and purified, elevated and ennobled, and united with the divine nature to grow heavenward and bear its precious fruit. The warmth of true friendship and the love that binds husband and wife is a foretaste of heaven. Unfaithfulness by Christ's people is like a wife's unfaithfulness to her husband.
Believers United to Christ
The great mystery is that believers are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones, and because Christ nourishes and cherishes the church as His own flesh they dwell in Him and He in them unto everlasting life. The church is His bride, and each true believer is a member of His body. That union with Christ and the church is spiritual and comes through personal faith in a personal Saviour, and outward church membership does not save. Receiving Him as the bread of life is dwelling in Him and His raising them to everlasting life.
Each believer is married to Jesus Christ as husband by ownership of creation and redemption, for He bought the church as His property, so the soul belongs to Him and its identity cannot be submerged in an earthly husband. The church married to Him becomes a sharer in His kingdom as joint heir with Him, with assurance of being loved as God loves His Son. This spiritual wedlock gives strength to be strong, speak hope and press through obstacles, meaning to approach the Saviour with full assurance of faith, join hands with Him, follow where He leads, do whatever He says and willingly receive His teaching, with the Word as assurance.
Because of that marriage each person has individual responsibility to accept the gospel invitation and walk in the light, and no earthly marriage can excuse separation from Christ. If need be husband must forsake wife and wife husband to practice religious principles and manifest loyalty to God, and if a husband refuses the light the wife must still come. Because of that leaning wholly on Christ, believers are to look to heaven and call upon God as the source of wisdom, grace and efficiency instead of asking counsel of man.
Connection with Christ therefore involves connection with His church, for Christ and His church are inseparable, He the bridegroom and the church the bride, He the head and the church the body. No one can hold to Christ while standing independent of the church and neglecting or despising those appointed to lead and bear responsibilities for the help, encouragement and strength of His people. To pass them by and insist that light must come through no other channel but direct from God repeats the insubordination by which glorious angels fell from dependence on God, and places a person where deception and overthrow are likely, for God places believers in connection with His appointed help in His church in order to be helped by them when judgment and discrimination have been perverted and the spirits cannot of themselves be discerned against the wiliness of Satan. Loyalty to Christ demands faithful performance of church duties as training, and in a church imbued with His life this leads directly to organized service and effort for the world, for the church is organized for service and connection with the church is one of the first steps in a life of service to Christ.
This oneness requires believers to govern speech and spirit by love and keep unity with one another, and that unity lifts them to a higher standard and gives the world convincing evidence that God sent His Son.
Duties in Christian Home
In its setting in Ephesians 5:21-33 the verse gives the distinct and plain duties of husband and wife and the relations that should exist between parents and children. That Bible instruction on the duty of husbands and wives to one another is to be studied diligently for encouragement when discouraged, together with bringing up children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord and the great work of parents to win their children to a love of the truth.
Wives are to be subject to their own husbands in everything as the church is subject to Christ, and to respect, love, reverence, and counsel with them. Marriage vows unite husband and wife in a solemn covenant before God calling the wife to this reverence. The wife is a cherished partner, not a slave. Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies and as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, nourishing and cherishing them even as the Lord does the church. That love is saving, sanctifying, and cleansing, giving itself to present the church glorious, holy and without spot, wrinkle or blemish. It never degrades a wife by making her a servant to uncontrolled passions, nor rules with a harsh, tyrannical character.
The husband is head of the wife and house-band to bind wife and children together, standing as priest of the household in the Lord's sight with responsibilities he cannot evade whether rich or poor, high or low. When the husband fulfills God's purpose the home is ordered under Christ. In the highest sense Christian husband and wife share the same hope in Jesus Christ, both amenable to God under one Master, living as brother and sister undivided in spirit serving one Lord and Master.
The unity of Christ and the church is the symbol and standard for unity in the home. A husband with a harsh, tyrannical character fails this calling and instead breaks every tie of affection, leaving the family scattered in bitterness and hatred toward one another, a blot upon the earth and woe to the children. He is to watch and pray, keep his soul in communion with God, withstand temptation, do his full duty to his wife and children, and remain under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit so he can mold his children's favorable or unfavorable temperaments into characters the Lord can approve. Although trials arise in married life, husband and wife are to keep their souls in the love of God, with the father regarding the mother of his children as deserving all kindness, tenderness, and sympathy, sharing with her the care and training of dependent children, sustaining her and co-operating with her in wisely, tenderly, lovingly educating their children, and speaking no word of censure or disrespect of each other in the hearing of the children.
These lessons are of the greatest importance yet practiced by few, and if carried out to the letter they would change families. Heeding this instruction makes home life pure and elevated, guarded by holy love. When the home is ordered under Christ its pure affections testify to the world of a happy Christian home. The family relationship is sanctifying, and Christian homes conducted according to God's plan form Christian character.