The Mystery of Marriage

The Mystery of Marriage…

, Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—30 for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—30 for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

This passage can be clearly really as three main requirements for the mystery of marriage to be made manifest as God intended.

First, in vv. 22–24, there is the requirement of submission and it urges wives to be submissive to their husbands as unto the Lord. While at the same time it harkens back to the unstated yet understood principle that Husbands must be under God’s submission as well.

Second, there is the requirement that husbands that commit to selfish devotion through their love for their wives just as Christ loved the church. These actions will make the mystery of marriage manifest itself. Next in this passage we find again in (vv. 28–32) where the requirement of husbands to love their wives is repeated, but this time the requirement is to make the mystery of marriage manifest its self in the sacrifice by the husband for the love Christ, acted out through his love for himself and his love for the church of Christ. Finally, in v. 33 the discussion is rounded off with two summarizing exhortations in which the duties and responsibilities of husbands and wives are briefly restated.

Many have asked why Paul places such a heavy emphasis on the marriage relationship here in Ephesians?

Perhaps Christian marriage was once again under attack as it is today. We recognize that the unbelievers in Ephesians had a total difference expectation and implementation of marriage.

Perhaps some married members of the churches addressed were not living out the distinctives of their faith in their marriages, but were behaving like their non-Christian neighbors. This is a problem that we too can relate to, as the failure of Christian marriages now rival those of the unsaved.

Perhaps sexual immorality was the real threat in marriage during that time.

warns us “They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.” follows up with these words 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. 3 But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you, as is proper among saints. 4 Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving. 5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. 6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience.

We do not know Paul’s reasoning from the emphasis on marriage here. But we do know that Paul’s emphasis was surely to stress the special status of Christian marriage. Most of all Paul understood deeply that the harmony of the Christian family is an essential element of oneness. So Paul here expands on the vital unity of husband and wife within the divine purposes of God and the mystery of marriage.

The ‘marriage relationship is important to God’s purposes on a larger scale than first realized … no other relationship within the family so fully mirrors God’s purposes in the universe’. This is why marriage is under attack now and has always been under attack because the mystery of marriage envelops and expresses our eternal relationship with God and His church.

Let us pray...

The mystery of marriage requires submission

22 Within the marriage relationship wives are addressed first, they are commanded to be submissive to their husbands as to the Lord. Although this verse does not contain the verb, ‘submit’ that understanding is carry over from v. 21, which says this, ‘submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ’ (). In v.22 the command is an imply action of the verb submit, without repeating the verb.

This keyword ‘submit’ “hypotasso” has to do with the subordination of someone in an orderly way to another who is in authority over that person. At the heart of this submission is the God’s command and requirement of ‘order.’

It is God who has established certain leadership and authority roles within the family, it is God who has established the order and it is God who has established marriage and is the author and sustainer of all Christian marriages.

This requirement of submission is a humble recognition of that divine ordering, but yet unspoken but clearly understood is the principle of a husband total submission and subordination unto a Holy, Sovereign, God.

I think is also clearly expressed in the text that the apostle is not urging every woman to submit to every man, but wives to their husbands. It word used here is idiois and the uses of the middle voice of this verb emphasizes the voluntary character of the submission unto your own husband only. Paul’s admonition to wives can only be heeded voluntarily, never by breaking of the human will, but exchanging the will for the will of God.

The idea of submission to authority in general, as well as in the family, is out of favor in our world, which prizes permissiveness and so-called freedom. Christians who do not keep themselves immersed in the Scriptures are often affected by these attitudes. From an unsaved and worldly view submission this smacks of exploitation and oppression and that is deeply resented in this culture. But the Christian must always remember that biblical authority is not synonymous with tyranny, and the submission to which the apostle refers does not imply inferiority or inadequacy or in inability, just God’s chosen order.

Wives and husbands (as well as children and parents, servants and masters) have different God-appointed roles in the family, but all have equal dignity because they have been made in the divine image of God. In Christ we have put on the new person who is created to be like God. “And to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. - (.) This simply means we who are in Christ are all righteous and holy in God’s sight and all share in the same inheritance and are of the same inherit value to God. But God does have an order for our service to Him.

The verb ‘submit, can also be used of Christ’s submission to the authority of the Father

, When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things in subjection under him, that God may be all in all.”

The motivation for the wife to be subject to her husband is spelled out in the final phrase, as to the Lord. The general caution of v. 21 to be submissive in ‘as to the Lord’ finds concrete expression for the wife in the marriage covenant: as she is submissive to her husband, so by very action of submitting to her husband she is submitting as unto the Lord. This voluntary response is not called for because of her role in society, nor because she is not mental sufficient, nor because she is member of the weaker sex but as unto the Lord.

Her submission cannot be understood as separate from her submission to Christ. Rather, it is part and parcel of the way that she serves the Lord Jesus.

“23 Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, 24 knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. 25 For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality ()

23 The reason for the wife’s submission to her husband is now expressed through this clause: ‘for the husband is head of the wife as Christ also is head of the church’. In Ephesians this key term ‘head’ has been used, both with reference to Christ. “And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, - ()

Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, - ()

Now, for the first time, the husband’s headship is stated as a fact. The origin of this headship is not spelled out here, although in , is says 13 “For Adam was formed first, then Eve; 14 and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor.”

Now this submission is grounded in the order of creation. 1 “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ. 2 Now I commend you because you remember me in everything and maintain the traditions even as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”

What is important here is that the nature of the husband’s headship in God’s new society is explained in relation to Christ’s headship? The husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. ‘Although [Paul] … grounds the fact of the husband’s headship in creation, he defines it in relation to the headship of Christ the redeemer’.

Christ headship over the church, clearly shows and this will have profound implications for the husband’s behavior as head of his wife (v. 28).

The term ‘savior’ could be taken in a general sense of protector or provider of the wife’s welfare, and so saving her; both the syntax and usage are against it that thought. Instead, this clause is specifically focused on Christ, not the husband: the personal pronoun ‘he himself’ is emphatic by its presence and position, and clearly refers to Christ. Further, the term ‘savior’, which turns up twenty-four times in the New Testament, always refers to Jesus or God, but never to human beings. With this understanding Christ fits appropriately within the flow of the apostle’s argument.

This command of submission turns on the headship of the husband, which is parallel to Christ’s headship or rule over the church. Paul then adds that the person who is head of the church is none other than the one who is the Savior of the body. His saving activity, especially his sacrificial death, was for the deliverance of men and women in dire spiritual peril.

24 The church’s submission to Christ is now presented as the model of the wife’s submission to her husband. Here the command to wives in v. 22 is repeated and reinforced with the addition of the words ‘in everything’. However, the sequence of v. 22 is reversed. The analogy of the church being subject to Christ is mentioned before the command that wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Why?

The apostle is stresses the willing character of the church’s submission to Christ, and thus underscores what the willing and voluntary nature of the wife’s subordination to her husband.

What is involved in the church’s submission to Christ? God has graciously placed everything under Christ’s feet and caused him to be head over all for the benefit of the church. The church gladly submits to his beneficent rule (1:22). Christ is the vital cornerstone on which God’s building is constructed. It is Christ who grows and progresses the church to its ultimate goal of holiness (2:20, 21). Christ indwells the hearts of his people, establishing them so that they may be able to comprehend the greatness of his love. Accordingly, the church’s submission to Christ means ‘looking to its head for his beneficial rule, living by his norms, experiencing his presence and love, receiving from him gifts that will enable growth to maturity, and responding to him in gratitude and awe’. It is these attitudes that the wife is urged to develop as she submits to her husband.

‘No part of her life should be outside of her relationship to her husband and outside of her submission to him’. Just as the church is to submit to Christ in everything, so in every sphere wives are expected to submit to their husbands. The motivation for doing this is a true and godly reverence for Christ.

By God’s design husband and wife are ‘one flesh’ (v. 31; ), and the divine intention is that they should ‘function together under one head, not as two autonomous individuals living together’.

There is no suggestion that this exhortation to be submissive is intended to stifle the wife’s thinking or acting. She should not act unilaterally, but rather submit willingly to her husband’s leadership. ‘Just as the church should willingly submit to Christ in all things and, if it does so, will not find that stifling, demeaning, or stultifying of growth and freedom, and neither will wives in their submission. Accordingly, the wife’s submission to her husband is not conditional on his loving her after the pattern of Christ’s love or showing his unceasing care for her. Later the apostle will make it clear that husbands are not to rule their wives insensitively (vv. 25–27). Those in authority should not ‘lord it over’ those who are led (). But the wife’s response of submission, which is not an unthinking obedience to his leadership, is to be rendered gladly, irrespective of whether the husband will heed the injunctions explicitly addressed to him or not. It is as unto the Lord. Contrary to much contemporary Western thinking, there is no suggestion that wives are to be submissive to their husbands only if their husbands are loving. We have already seen that the church’s submission to Christ leads to blessing, growth, and unity for God’s people. Similarly, the wife’s submission to her husband, as she seeks to honor the Lord Jesus Christ, will ultimately lead to divine blessing for her and others.

The mystery of marriage requires sanctification

Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

25 Now Paul turns his focus on the husband’s duty to love his wife. In fact the rest of this passage is firmly placed on the shoulders of the husband.

The model and ground of the husband’s love for his wife are Christ’s love for the church. The character and description of that love is amplified in the following clause, and gave himself up for her. Again the verb ‘gave’, together with the reflexive pronoun ‘himself’, stresses the fact that Christ took the initiative in handing himself over to death.

When Christ went to the cross, as a willing victim, his action on behalf of his people was the supreme demonstration of his love for them. Such self-sacrificing is an example for all believers to serve one another in love as they imitate God. Now this selfish less action furnishes the basis of the example that husbands must imitate to sacrifice their own interests for the welfare of their wives.

Their love, modeled on Christ’s love for the church, means that husbands would give their life for their wives.

In the Old Testament the image of marriage was often used to depict the covenant relationship between Yahweh and his people, Israel. Jesus took over this teaching and boldly referred to himself as the Bridegroom. He presented ‘himself in the role of Yahweh in the divine marriage with the covenanted people’. Paul expands on the image in , I wish you would bear with me in a little foolishness. Do bear with me! 2 For I feel a divine jealousy for you, since I betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a pure virgin to Christ. 3 But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Now here in , Paul focuses particularly on ‘the sacrificial steadfastness of the heavenly Bridegroom’s covenant-love for his bride’. It is this sacrificial love, which husbands are to imitate.

Because of this apostolic injunction, husbands will not behave in an overbearing manner. All areas of married life should be characterized by this self-giving love and forgiveness, the original order of the Creator.

26 Paul proceeds to spell out the goal of Christ’s sacrificial love for the church by means of three purpose clauses: that he might ‘sanctify her’ (v. 26), ‘present her to himself’ in splendor (v. 27a), and enable her to be ‘holy and blameless’ (v. 27c). As indicated above, the imagery from the Old Testament about God’s relationship to Israel stands behind this use of the marriage analogy. Look at , Again the word of the LORD came to me: 2"Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations, 3and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor wrapped in swaddling cloths. 5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you, but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born. 6 "And when I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' I said to you in your blood, 'Live!' 7 I made you flourish like a plant of the field. And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full adornment. Your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare. 8 "When I passed by you again and saw you, behold, you were at the age for love, and I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness; I made my vow to you and entered into a covenant with you, declares the Lord GOD, and you became mine.9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you and anointed you with oil. 10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk.11 And I adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your wrists and a chain on your neck.12 And I put a ring on your nose and earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head.13Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen and silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty.14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor that I had bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD.

This passage describes God as caring for, washing, marrying, and adorning his people with splendor.

The first of the three purpose clauses states that Christ gave himself up for the church in order to ‘sanctify her’. The basic idea of this verb ‘sanctify or make holy’ is that of setting someone apart to God for his service. Christians are described as those who are ‘sanctified in Christ Jesus’, whom God has set apart for himself in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But this verb sanctify refers to the church being brought into ‘an exclusive and dedicated relationship with God, as the holy people of the New Covenant’, not to an ongoing process of sanctification. As a husband this means we are to become exclusive, entirely, and eternally dedicated to our wives to the point of death. ‘Till death do us part!’

Through his sacrificial death Christ claimed the church as his own to be his holy people. ‘Christ died to devote the church to himself in an exclusive and permanent relationship analogous to marriage’. Closely related to Christ’s sanctifying work is his ‘cleansing’ the church ‘by the washing of water through the word’. The cleansing of the church is thought to precede her sanctification or consecration. Christ died for the church ‘to make her holy by cleansing her’ (NRSV). Cleansing points to the removal of sin, while sanctification focuses on being set apart to God. Many assume that ‘the washing’ refers to baptism. Instead, when Paul speaks of ‘washing’, his focus, as in , is on the spiritual cleansing accomplished by Christ rather than on baptism.

Further, v. 26 is more likely to have been influenced by the marital imagery in and the prenuptial bath in the Jewish marital customs than by baptismal considerations. When Yahweh entered his marriage covenant with Jerusalem, he bathed her with water, washed off the blood from her (v. 9), anointed her with oil, and clothed her with magnificent garments, making her so beautiful that she was fit to be a queen. Christ’s death on behalf of the church was to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water, and this is analogous to the bridal bath. So as husbands we are called to die to ourselves, our selfishness, self-centerness.

The final phrase ‘through the word’ is closely linked to the immediately preceding expression, ‘the washing of water’, and it should be joined to the word ‘cleansing’, to understand it as signifying a cleansing ‘through the word of the gospel’. This is precisely how this particular term ‘word’ is employed elsewhere in Ephesians, namely, as the preached word of the gospel. Paul asserts that the church is made pure by a spiritual cleansing (‘by the washing of water’), and this is accomplished through the purifying word of the gospel.

A notion that is akin to our Lord’s words about his disciples being cleansed and sanctified through the word which he had spoken, Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. - ().

Christ gave himself to the church to make her holy by cleansing her. A spiritual washing brought about through Christ’s gracious word in the gospel effected this cleansing. His love for the church is the model for husbands in its purpose and goal, as well as in its self-sacrifice. In the light of Christ’s complete giving of himself to make the church holy and cleanse her, husbands should be utterly committed to the total well-being, especially the spiritual welfare, of their wives in God’s sanctifying work.

27 The goal of Christ’s sanctifying and purifying work, and the ultimate purpose of his sacrificial love for the church, is ‘to present her to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any other blemish … so that she might be holy and blameless’.

Just as in v. 26 Christ is the one who makes the church holy, so here also he is the subject who presents the church in all its splendor is Christ as well. Here in Ephesians, by adding the personal pronoun ‘[he] himself’, together with the reflexive pronoun ‘to himself’, Paul goes out of his way to emphasize that it is Christ who will present the church to himself.

This presentation of the church as his bride will be ‘in all its splendor’, an expression which probably reflects the imagery of , where Yahweh clothes his bride in magnificent apparel and jewelry, so that her beauty is ‘perfect because of my splendor that I had bestowed on you, says the Lord God’ (v. 14; NRSV). Paul does not say when this will happen, but it seems likely that he has in mind the parousia, for it is then that the glorified church will be with Christ forevermore, and will be seen to be ‘glorious’. It is better to understand ‘glorious’ of the eschatological radiance and brightness of God’s presence on the final day, than the glory in which the church currently participates. As a husband I must see this glorification of my bride in the light of final sanctification already certain in God and her ongoing sanctification being manifested by God. This glory is the radiance of God, the shining forth and manifestation of his presence. The immediately following statements in v. 27, which depict the church as ‘free from spot, wrinkle or anything of the sort’, amplify and explain what is meant by ‘glorious’,

Using the image of a lovely young woman, Paul states that she will be without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish. Not even the smallest spot or pucker that spoils the smoothness of the skin will mar the unsurpassed beauty of Christ’s bride when he presents her to himself. Christ’s people may rightly be accused of many shortcomings and failures. But God’s gracious intention is that the church should be holy and blameless, language, which speaks of a beauty, which is moral and spiritual. But as husbands we are to focus on what our wives will become through God’s gracious leading and our selfless love for them.

The mystery of marriage requires sacrifice.

28 Husbands have already been exhorted to love their wives (v. 25a). The example for this command is Christ’s sacrificial love for the church. Now Paul anticipates the question that would come from all husbands. What kind of love is this? How can I possible achieve this when I know nothing of it? So Paul gives us an example we could all readily understand and that was undeniable. He starts with the words (in this same way) is drawn from Christ’s love as husbands are urged again to love their wives. The main point of vv. 25–27 is driven home as Paul reinforces his assertion with a verb that stresses obligation: ‘husbands ought to love their wives’.

They are to love them as their own bodies… The statement applies the second great commandment, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself’ (), in a direct way to the love which the husband should have for his nearest and dearest neighbor, namely, his wife. In support of this, Bruce points out that ‘neighbor’ (in its Hebrew feminine form) is used repeatedly ‘by the lover in the Song of Songs when addressing his beloved or speaking about her to others’. Both Leviticus and Ephesians assume that a person will look after his or her own interests and welfare. The expression ‘as their own bodies’ instead of ‘as themselves’ is presumably due to the influence of , which is cited in v. 31. This Old Testament Scripture declares that in marriage husband and wife are ‘one flesh’. Husband and wife, then, are regarded as one person, a single entity. Accordingly, the husband’s obligation to love his wife as his own body is not simply a matter of loving someone else just like he loves himself. It is, in fact, to love himself. Finally, the idea of husbands loving their wives as their own bodies reflects the model of Christ, whose love for the church can be seen as love for his own body.

29 As he continues to urge husbands to love their wives, the apostle supports and develops his statement that whoever loves his wife loves himself: ‘after all, no one ever hates his own flesh, but instead nourishes and cherishes it’. It is natural for people to regard their own bodies as important. Paul has the husband particularly in view, he does everything possible to take care of his body (lit. ‘flesh’). He ‘nourishes’ and ‘cherishes’ it, terms full of affection which are drawn from the language of the nursery and are the very reverse of hating one’s body.

But it is the powerful example of Christ that is again invoked. For all the church imperfections Christ nurtures and tenderly cares for his body, the church. He is both its Head and Savior. He gave himself up for the church in order to sanctify it. And he constantly provides for its nourishment and growth (4:11–16). Let each husband, then, follow Christ’s example and be wholehearted in loving and tenderly caring for his wife.

30 In a magnificent supporting statement Paul underlines the fact that both he and his readers are so intimately joined to Christ that they have become part of him. What has been said in the preceding argument about Christ’s care for the church applies to them all. They (and we) have been incorporated into Christ and are the very members of his body, whom he nourishes and cherishes. ‘The “body” is not a vague ecclesiological concept for Paul; rather, it is a term that expresses the solidarity of believers with Christ’. Now it is affirmed that we are members of his body.

Further, within the flow of the paragraph, the relationship between Christ and his church is presented not simply as the ideal model for a husband and wife in their marriage. It is also the reality in which they and other Christians are included. Husbands and wives, like other believers, are profoundly indebted to Christ because they know what it is to be loved and cherished by him day by day. Let the husband, then, who understands Christ’s tender affection and nurture follow this example in his love for his wife.

31–32 Paul has invoked the example of the Lord Jesus Christ nourishing and caring for his church as he urges husbands again to love their wives. He reminds us that we have been recipients of Christ’s tender care. After all, we are intimately joined to Him (v. 30). Now as the apostle moves to the climax of the paragraph, he cites the text that has provided the substructure of his thought throughout, namely, , the most fundamental statement in the Old Testament concerning God’s plan for marriage. Within its original context the narrator of describes how woman was taken from the side of man to be his companion. He then adds: ‘This is why a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’.

The apostle then comments that ‘this mystery is great’ (v. 32), that is, it is significant and profound. First, what is meant by the expression ‘this mystery’? Secondly, to what does ‘this mystery’ refer? And, thirdly, what is being said about this mystery? First a mystery from a biblical understanding is something that was always truly shown in Scripture and but never fully reveal. Secondly, this mystery refer to the larger symbolism of marriage from God’s perspective.

Mystery’ refers to the marriage relationship.

‘This mystery’ is a reference to the marriage relationship. The mystery refers to the relationship between Christ and the church as a typology of marriage. Typology is the doctrine of study of symbols and classifications. The mystery of marriage is that it symbolizes our ultimate relationship between the church and Christ.

Theologically, Paul’s argument does not move from human marriage to Christ and his church; rather, Christ and the church in a loving relationship is the paradigm for the Christian husband and wife. Using this view v. 32 is a summarizing affirmation: ‘this mystery’ does not simply refer to the immediately preceding words of v. 30, but to the line of thought running through the passage, that is, ‘Christ and the church reflected in the dynamic interplay of a truly Christian marriage’. ‘Both the OT passage and the marriage relationship of which it speaks are connected with the mystery, but their connection is that they point to the secret that has now been revealed, that of the relationship between Christ and the Church’. The mystery is not any particular marriage or marriage itself; it is the union of Christ and the church which is reflected in a truly Christian marriage. Such a mystery is indeed ‘profound’.

A Christian marriage, as envisaged in this paragraph, is ‘to reveal the mystery of Christ loving his responsive church. Such a marriage bears living witness to the meaning of “two becoming one” ’. It reproduces in miniature the beauty shared between the Bridegroom and the Bride. And through it all, the mystery of the gospel is unveiled.

33 Paul now rounds off his discussion with two summarizing exhortations in which the duties and responsibilities of husbands and wives are briefly restated.