As I have continued to study the passage I wrote about last week (starting with Ephesians 5:22) I have continued to learn more and more about Christ, His church, and marriage. Seeing more of God’s intention for marriage is beautiful and peaceful. Obviously, I am not married…
But studying the biblical view of marriage has caused me to see the beauty and love of Christ, and relationship between husband and wife, with a new perspective. In order to fully see this perspective, I think it is necessary that I first explain what I have found concerning “Christ [being] the head of the church, His body…”
I wrote last week about Jesus loving the church, His body, dearly, and, sequentially, husbands loving their wives in the same way, but I think to fully understand this the starting point must be Christ and the church. It is really from this, I feel, that a true understanding of love and marriage can be found.
The foundation for this statement lies in finding what it means that Christ is the head of the church.
Chapter one of Ephesians states that God,
“put all things under his (Jesus’) feet and give him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all”
(vs. 22-23).
We see throughout the New Testament (Eph. 4:15, 5:23, Col. 1:18, 2:19, 2:10, 1 Cor. 11:3) that God has given His son power and authority over all the church, and that Jesus has taken on this church as His own body. This is such a beautiful picture of our relationship to Jesus. We are literally His body, whom He loves as His own. He knows that we are in desperate need of Him for life and that we are lost on our own. He knows what is best for us and what we need at all times. When one part of the body suffers, Christ suffers with it. He prunes us to make us stronger and He disciplines us because He knows we need it to grow. He loves us all equally, and He is our savior. This is the love and protection of our savior for us.
Because of this love and necessity of Jesus, it would be absolutely foolish of us not to follow Christ. He is in authority over us, but He is a good ruler. He knows that without Him we are lost and without direction. Our calling to submit to Him is not burdensome; it is freedom. It is a chance at true life.
As Christ is the head and therefore has authority over us, He is still part of us. He has identified with us. He is one with us as we are a part of His body, but He is also our God and Father who is our only hope, who has molded and crafted our lives to find true joy in Himself.
I think this understanding of Christ and the church is necessary to our complete understanding of biblical marriage. Marriage is an exact representation of this relationship, and I believe we must understand this to fully understand its purpose fulfillment. As the body of Christ we are now free to live in Him and through Him. We must submit to Him in everything, for He is all we need.
