“This mystery of marriage is profound.” I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”
– Ephesians 5:32–33
Our marriages should offer the world a picture of the relationship of Christ to the church.
Ephesians 5:32–33: The Church is the Bride of Christ
These verses remind us that marriage was designed by God from the beginning for a purpose. When God brought man and woman together in marriage, he was giving the world a picture of Christ and the church. In a husband’s love for his wife, and a husband’s sacrificial serving his wife. He would show the world a picture of how Christ loves his bride, the church. And how Christ gives himself up as a servant for the church.
Then, (as it states in Ephesians 5:32–33) in a wife’s respect and love for her husband. Following her husband’s leadership, the world would see a picture of how the church follows Christ. And how the church gladly submits to Christ and his good leadership in our lives. This picture in marriage is not to be toyed or trifled within our day. We obviously see it toyed and trifled with, and redefined, even, in different ways. We must be all the more zealous to make sure that this picture of Christ and the church is clear in our marriages.
Prayer for Husbands
Let’s pray for that. Oh, God. Pray for husbands. Help us, we pray, to show Christ’s love for the church in the way we love our wives. Lord, help us to lay our lives down serving them, building them up, cherishing them, nourishing them. Helping them to grow in beauty according to your word. We pray that you would help us to love our wives well, and in the process, show the world how much Christ loves the church.
Prayer for Wives
Lord, we pray for wives. We pray to you to help wives just as Ephesians 5:32–33 says to respect their husbands, to gladly follow their loving leadership. Lord, we pray that wives would show a picture of the church’s love for Christ, respect for Christ, desire to follow Christ in the way they approach marriage. God, we pray for marriage in our day. We pray knowing that you designed marriage from the first day, to be a display of your love in the world, to display of the gospel to the world.
Prayer for Marriages to Reflect the Gospel
We pray that you would help us to display your love. Help us to display the gospel in our marriages today and each day. God, we pray that the gospel would be clear in husbands, and in wives, and our relationships with one another. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
