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…. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. Ephesians 5:25-26, 28-30.

Do you love your spouse the way that Christ loves His church? It’s the work of a lifetime, a work that goes go far beyond cultivating companionship. Companionship ebbs and flows with seasons, situations, emotions, and growth. That’s why Christ’s covenant with His followers, what we call the Body of Christ, is our model for exploring marriage between male and female.

For those called to marriage, the desire for marriage isn’t some sort of trick designed by God to teach you difficult truths. In fact, the “battle of the sexes” and pitting men and women against one another is a disastrous misinterpretation of covenant design. Instead, marriage is the fulfillment of design, in which two people join together to build harmony.

When God created Adam and Eve, God created a bond of companionship by giving Adam a “suitable helper” (Genesis 2:18, 20). Eve was a matching counterpart, beside and opposite of her mate. This union of a man and woman results in “one flesh” and is a reflection of one origin. That origin is God. (Genesis 2:23-24) Both female and male are in the image of God, designed in harmony like the tandem branches of a tree (Genesis 1:28).

We don’t always have the best models of this unity in marriage from our families, friends, churches, or own experience. Marriage is called a “profound mystery” (Ephesians 5:32), which is why we look to Gods’ love for us as a pure model when trying to understand this mystery and need His help in living it out (1 John 4:7-12).

 

Resource reading: Genesis 2:4-25