God has designed marriage to be a wonderful partnership between a man and a woman, one that helps them both pursue Christ-likeness while fulfilling what God wants them to do. It's a partnership that is borne out of love for God and each other, and brings out the best in both parties.
However, because of the wrong information about marriage and the dysfunctional marriages that we've seen and heard of through the ages, we've developed wrong ideas about the roles that husbands and wives should play. As a result, many marriages that have wrong foundations are collapsing and breaking.
It's a good thing that we can access the original design for marriage, simply because it's there in the Bible. It describes what Christ-founded marriages are like, and also tells us how to be like it.
Here's what a marriage partnership rooted in Christ looks like:
1. Characterised By Love In Service
Ephesians 5:21-30 perfectly describes this:
"And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body."
2. Wives Aren't Second-Class Citizens, But Are Equals Of Their Husbands
The Bible clearly says that, "Therefore a man will leave his father and mother and remain with his wife, and the two will become one" (Ephesians 5:31 CJB; see also Genesis 2:24). This simply means that because the husband and the wife are one, no one is above the other in terms of their rights.
This goes against what is common in today's culture, where a husband lords over his wife, and the latter is treated like his servant. At other times, the wife is dominant, and the husband is run over. That is just plain wrong.
The Bible simply states that they are equals in the sight of God, and that both should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ, who is the Head of all things.
3. It Has Purpose
A Christ-centred marriage has a purpose and is driven towards God. Many marriages today are the result of a man and a woman loving each other. They both want to live together and want to have kids. Some want to leave a legacy, but it ends there.
God-ordained marriages, however, are purposed to bring Him glory by transforming both the husband and wife into the likeness of Christ. Both parties know this, and they are committed to helping each other love God more than they love one another.
