The apostle Paul gave believers of the early church the command in Ephesians 5:22-33 on how spouses are to fulfill their God-given roles in marriage. The picture that Paul gives us is the relationship between Christ and the church where the husband is Christ and the wife is the church.
Husbands are commanded to love their wives the way Christ loves the church, and wives are equally commanded to submit to their husbands the same way the church is to submit to Christ.
One thing we can conclude about these roles given is that they're next to impossible. Reality tells us that it is much easier to dissolve a contract-based union than to honour the covenant made before God. That is why we need the grace of God.
God's grace and power is key to everything we do in life. It is key to us conquering sin and death, to us being excellent in our jobs and most especially to thriving in a God-ordained union between man and wife. Apart from the grace of God, marriages will come crumbling or simply surviving the waves, but with God's grace husbands and wives can enjoy and fulfill the fullness of the gift that is marriage.
Here are verses that help us fulfill our roles as husbands and wives in a marriage.
James 4:6 | But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud, but shows favor to the humble."
Humility is key to accepting that we cannot fulfill our roles apart from the love and grace of God. When we submit to His will and sovereignty, we can turn to Christ in every twist and turn we face in our marriage.
2 Corinthians 9:8 | And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that always having all sufficiency in everything, you may have an abundance for every good deed.
It is not our spouse nor ourselves that can bring wholeness. The Bible promises that we have sufficiency in everything through God's grace. As a result, we can love and submit to our spouses regardless of their actions because it is Christ who ultimately satisfies us and not our spouses.
Philippians 4:13 | I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
A marriage calls for strength, and the Bible tells us that a marriage is a strong cord of three strands and the third cord, which is God, is the strongest of all three. The context of this scripture is not that God allows us to do whatever we want, but that we can do what He has commanded us to do. Guess what? Ephesians 5:22-33 is a command from God.
1 Timothy 1:12 | I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service.
God's graciousness does not result in spoiled and laid-back Christians, but in believers who are faithfully put into service.
