“Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”
Genesis 2:24

“This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”
Ephesians 5:32

The union of a man and woman in marriage is a mystery because it conceals, as in a parable, a truth about Christ and the Church.

The divine reality in the concept of marriage is that God ordained a permanent union between His Son and the Church. Marriage between a man and a woman is the earthly representation of this divine plan. As God willed for Christ and the Church to become one body (Galatians 3:28; 1st Corinthians 12:13), so He desires for marriage to reflect this pattern.

Husbands and wives should consciously copy God’s model for the relationship between Christ and the Church. Some essentials of this divine model are as follows:

First, the Church is to be led by Christ as the woman is to be led by her husband. The responsibility of the man is to see the vision for the family and that of the woman is to submit to the leadership of her husband as they work together to fulfil it.

It is also the responsibility of Christ to provide while the Church puts the resources into use so as to achieve the joint goal. The man is to provide for the home; in fact, 1st Timothy 5:8 describes anyone who does not provide for his home as worse than an infidel, having rejected the faith. The woman on the other hand, is to use the resources provided by the man (While also supporting as much as she can) for the good of the home, not for buying frivolous jewellery or shoes, except where the man has provided specifically for that. The wife being a ‘help meet’ should however support the man as much as she can (Genesis 2:18, Ephesians 5:22).

If we could pattern our marriages according to the relationship between Christ and the Church, we would have many more fulfilling marriages today.
Written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye.