And This Is Why We Got Married pt. 3

In Pt. 2 of this series, I make the following claim: "In a healthy marriage, in a functional marriage...you're serving your spouse, your spouse is serving you, and together you're serving God in the way that you serve one another. And we need to be mindful of that." And on this point you may be asking yourself, ‘Where is this idea of husbands serving their wives and wives serving their husbands found in the Scriptures?’ Well, I’m glad you asked, and I shall endeavor to tell you. For starters, consider Ephesians 5:22-33. "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." This isn’t to say that every Christian man loves his wife as perfectly or blamelessly as Christ loved the church anymore than it is to say that the excellent wife described in Proverbs 31:10-31 is every Christian woman. But what the aforementioned is talking about is the ideal. This is the target we’re aiming for. Women need love, and men need respect. And since we have these commands, I’m assuming that with God’s help men are capable of loving their wives and women are capable of respecting their husbands.  And who wouldn’t want that?