Christ, the Church, and Marriage

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. Ephesians 5:22-32 (emphasis added)

As shown at the end of the above passage, marriage is a symbol or picture of Christ and his relationship with the church. That would seem to help explain why there are so many dead set on destroying that symbol today. This passage in Ephesians is given to help us understand Christ's relationship to the church by holding up a biblical marriage as an example. Sadly, in the wicked world in which we live, the average marriage bears little resemblance to what scripture tells us it should look like. Still much truth about the nature of the church can be found here, such as Christ is the head and the church is subject to him. Christ loves the church and gave himself for it. He uses the word of God to clean and sanctify the church to make it holy, and even that there is an intimacy between Christ and the church that will be found only in that relationship.

If you are a Christian, this should lead you to a couple of conclusions. One is that your own marriage should reflect the values presented in Ephesians 5 so that it does not present a distorted image of Christ and the church to the world. The second conclusion a Christian should draw is that the church they belong to also should reflect the values presented in Ephesians 5 in it's relationship to Christ, so that it does not present a distorted image of marriage to the world.