Living God’s way: Marriage illustrates church’s relationship with Christ

To illustrate the relationship the church is to have with Christ, Paul uses the marriage relationship (Ephesians 5:22-33). He uses the wife and her responsibilities to the husband to illustrate how the church is to act in relationship to Christ. He uses the husband to illustrate how Christ will be taking care of His bride, the church. In the process of giving this illustration, Paul also talks about the relationship between the husband and the wife. He speaks of how the wife is to be subject to her husband, while telling the husband to love his wife and be willing to give himself for her. In Paul's conclusion to this subject, he says, "This mystery is great; but I am speaking with refe