Marriage Helps #13
Husbands and wives hold marriage in honor—prize it as precious—(Hebrews 13:4), when they faithfully practice it, actively and cheerfully embracing their God-ordained roles and responsibilities, as they are set out most clearly and comprehensively in Ephesians 5:29-32.
For husbands and wives to faithfully practice marriage is a precious privilege and an important responsibility, for by doing so they reflect in their relationship with each other the pattern of Christ’s relationship with His bride, the church. The faithful practice of marriage presents a parable of the gospel.
The faithful practice of marriage requires the husband and the wife to each be in Christ–which Paul explains in Ephesians chapters 1-3—to be blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, to be adopted as sons, redeemed through His blood, forgiven of our trespasses, sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise and made alive together with Christ and all to the praise of His glory.
The faithful practice of marriage is one among many gospel responsibilities explained in Ephesians chapters 4-6, which husbands and wives must also faithfully practice. It is also worth noting that Paul’s specific instructions to husbands and wives (5:29-32) immediately follow his more general directives to “walk in love, just as Christ loved [us]” (5:2), to “walk [in the] light” since we are light in the Lord (5:8), to “walk in [in wisdom] . . . understanding what the will of the Lord is” (5:15, 17), and to “be filled with the Spirit” (5:18).
The faithful practice of marriage applies roles and responsibilities that Paul sets forth in a relatively simple and straightforward fashion. Wives are to submit to their own husbands (vv.22-24). Husbands are to love their wives (vv.25-29). Note that the Scriptures do not tell us who is to wash the dishes, mow the lawn, take out the garbage or make the beds. The responsibilities explained in Ephesians chapter 5 are reaffirmed numerous times in the New Testament, including Colossians 3:18, 19 and I Peter 3:1-6. The submission on the part of the wife is to take place in the context of her calling to be the husband’s “help”. The love on the part of the husband is to take place in the context of his role as the wife’s “head”. These respective roles are rooted in the created order, as Paul affirms in I Corinthians 11:3-12. There was, before the Fall of Adam, a structure of hierarchy worked out in harmony.
