Paul & Kim’s Wedding Message

NT Passage

Ephesians 5:21–32 “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 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…. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.”

In this passage, the apostle Paul outlines for us the relationship between a wife and a husband in marriage. However, it is critical to understand that before this passage speaks about wives submitting to husbands, it says that both husband and wife should be submitting to each other out of reverence for Christ.

Marriage is mutual submission. Wives are to honor, respect, support, and follow their husbands’ lead. As the church submits to Christ, wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands are to love their wives. They are to place their wives’ needs before their own. Husbands are to die to themselves. They are to protect, to provide, and to assure the spiritual vitality of their wives.

Neither of these charges are easy because we are fallen people. That is why forgiveness is so important in marriage.

This passage tells us that a union between a man and woman, in mutual submission, is an image of the relationship between Christ and the Church. This is indeed a profound mystery.

Hebrew Bible Passage

Marriage is not a human invention. It was ordained by God. In this passage, we read, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a direct quote from Genesis 2:24. The idea of marriage was God’s idea from the beginning. It’s in the second chapter of the Bible.

An equally important idea about the relationship between men and women is in the first chapter of the Bible. In Genesis 1:27 we read, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.”

The Hebrew word used for “man” in this passage is “Adam.” That word can mean mankind, or it’s a name. In this passage, it means mankind. Allow me to restate this passage,

“God created mankind in his own image. In the image of God, he created mankind. Mankind’s image bearing of God is complete in male and female.”

Isn’t that interesting? Together male and female reflect the image of God. Neither man nor woman in and of themselves fully display God’s image. We do so together.

In the book of Ephesians we understand that the marriage of a man and woman, and their mutual submission, is a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the church. In Genesis, we understand that God’s image-bearing is fully expressed in male and female.

Paul, Kim, I charge you to reflect God’s image as you join in marriage. Allow the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you as you grow in love. Forgive each other. Submit to each other. Die to yourselves, and allow the glory of God to shine through you as you enter the covenant of marriage. Be a reflection of the relationship between Christ and the church.

May the love of the Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit grow in you as you grow together in marriage. Amen.