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Title: Conclusions on Marriage
Intro:
31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
- This Concept Would Have Been Well Established With Paul’s Jewish Readers
Remember, the Church that Paul was originally writing to had a long standing Jewish component to it. By the time Paul had originally visited Ephesus in 53 A.D. there had been an established Jewish community in the city for over 300 years.
It is beyond reasonable to assume that a large component of the Church at Ephesus was made up of recently converted Jewish Christians.
For them, this concept from Paul would be a very familiar one.
Consider:
Gen. 2:24
Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
And also the teachings of Jesus:
Mat 19:5
And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
Mar 10:7
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and cleave to his wife;
- For “What” Reason?
As Paul drives his points home on marriage he states “For this reason” or “For this cause” in some translations, and we need to unpack what, precisely the reason is.
Paul has been building his argument throughout chapter 5 that the marriage between man and woman is a mirror of the marriage between Christ, and his bride, the Church.
To understand the answer, we have to go back to the Genesis 2 passage and see what caused the Lord to make this claim. Here’s the Genesis 2 passage in more detail; during the creation account:
22 And the Lord God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.
23 Then the man said,
“At last this is bone of my bones,
And flesh of my flesh;
She shall be called ‘woman,’
Because she was taken out of man.”
24 For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.
JI Packer:
“A person’s union with his or her own body is intimate and permanent, and marriage creates a similar union. Christ has joined the Church to himself through the bonds of the covenant he fulfilled, and this intimate union forms an analogy for Christian marriage.”
PB’s $25,000 Thought:
So, in essence, what we see here is a return to the original design. Woman was taken from man, and marriage reunites them as one flesh. In a parallel, man was taken from God (by sin), and the “marriage” between Christ and His Church reunites them as one flesh.
I truly believe that is why Paul says in v.32 “This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the Church”
Paul is telling us: This is bigger than us. It is (most certainly) bigger than a secular concept of “being in love”. This is about the singular greatest love; one that lays down it’s life to save the other eternally.
And, if I’m reading Matthew Henry correctly, we seem to agree on this:
This is a great mystery, v. 32. Those words of Adam, just mentioned by the apostle, are spoken literally of marriage; but they have also a hidden mystical sense in them, relating to the union between Christ and his church, of which the conjugal union between Adam and the mother of us all was a type: though not instituted or appointed by God to signify this, yet it was a kind of natural type, as having a resemblance to it: I speak concerning Christ and the church.
Paul’s Practical Conclusion:
As he closes the chapter, Paul flatly states: Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
This one sentence serves a two-fold purpose:
- It is a summation and reminder of what Paul has been teaching the entire chapter.
- It is a clear indication that, while these concepts are huge and far-reaching, we have a rather simple role in the grand scheme of things:
- Husbands: Love your wives as yourselves.
- Wives: Respect your husbands.
Next Message: KIDS!