God’s design for marriage

#1 - Wives should be submissive to their husbands.

Ephesians 5:22 ESV

Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

#2 - Husbands love your wives as christ loves the church

Ephesians 5:25–28 ESV

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

#3 - Spouses need to fully commit to their marriage

Ephesians 5:31 ESV

“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

Marriage is not a concession to our sinfulness; marriage is a provision for our holiness.

J. Alec Motyer