“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church” (Ephesians 5:25)

A marriage in the flesh is when a woman submits to a man and becomes one flesh with him. Marriage is supposed to mirror the eternal spiritual marriage of Christ submitted to the Father. This is mysterious. But what’s even more mysterious is when a saint becomes one spirit with God, he enters that eternal relationship! (1 Corinthians 6:17). “We are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:30-33). 

Christ gave husbands the ultimate example of how to treat their wives. He sacrificed “Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church” (Ephesians 5:25-27). Are you sanctifying your spouse? “If any brother has a wife who does not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her. And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband” (1 Corinthians 7:12-14). 

Christ cherishes saints more than the rest of mankind: “I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me ... and I am glorified in them” (John 17:9-10). A saint glorifies Christ in the same way the wife glorifies her husband. The saint who submits to Christ as the wife submits to her husband possesses the “incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God” (1 Peter 3:4). Christ regards His saints as His treasure, His crown, the eternal focus of His love even when they fail Him. Just so, a husband should love his wife, with constant love, without variation of affection, even when she fails him. “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives” (Colossians 3:18-19).