The Body - Marraige

This past week at Heritage, Pastor Matt continued the series The Body, emphasizing our union with Christ and how it relates to husbands and wives. He did a great job unpacking the true meaning of “two becoming one” in chapter 5 of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, particularly how it reflects Christ and the church.
Most of us probably don’t think of our marriages as a parallel to Christ and his love for the church. Paul even goes on to say it is “profound” (Eph 5:32). How would our marriages look if we kept this at the forefront of our minds? I know the enemy sure doesn’t want us to!
Paul begins this very chapter with “therefore…walk in love”. Every time I run across the word “therefore” in the Bible, I’m reminded of what my grandfather used to say: “What’s the ‘therefore’ there for?” Well, in the previous chapter, Paul is pointing us to our identity in Christ. To be renewed in the spirit of our minds and to put on the new self (Eph 4:23-24).

At Heritage, we spend a lot of time talking about our identity in Christ,  renewing our minds to who we are, and growing in our understanding of the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. When we do this, it overflows into our marriages, and the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22) abounds! As believers, our marriages should reflect the love of Christ. The good news is, being able to pull this off isn’t based on our own willpower, but by the Spirit, who can do far more abundantly than all that we can ask or think, according to the power at work within us (Eph 3:17-21)!