Marriage, Christ, and the Church

Marriage, Christ, and the Church For many of us, marriage is something for the future. But it’s not too early to understand God’s vision for marriage, letting it change not only your motives in marriage, but also for marriage—and any romantic relationship. After all, God’s vision for marriage is closely related to His vision for the church. You may have heard the church described as the “bride of Christ.” In today’s scripture, Paul looks deeper into this metaphor and shows how marriage parallels the relationship between Jesus and His bride. When we consider that God authored marriage and made it an example of the depth of Jesus’ love, it’s easy to see how loving our spouse correlates to loving the church and being Christlike. So when we think about sacrifice in marriage, every act of submission to one another in love turns into a reflection of Jesus giving Himself up for the church. Every kindness to our loved one, every forgiven wrong, is a display of Jesus’ endless grace toward us. Our faithfulness in hardships mirrors Jesus’ faithfulness to His bride. How can we make this image the basis of all our relationships? Married or not, by being Christlike in our love, we display the glory of Christ.