Why the Metaphor of Marriage Helps Us Understand Our Relationship with God

 

Marriage is not God’s plan for everyone, but it's a relationship that most people can understand. No wonder it's one of the metaphors God uses to describe His relationship with His people.

A husband and wife have a unique bond of closeness based on a permanent commitment that should strengthen over time, bringing increased love, understanding, joy, and happiness. 

 

It’s the first human relationship described in Scripture, and it's the basis for the human family structure.

 

Ephesians 5:24-33 explains that marriage is “a profound mystery” that helps us better understand Christ's commitment to us His people. This doesn't mean everything about human marriage applies, but it's a reflection of the commitment, oneness, protection, and joy we have in Christ.

 

Christ is a perfect “Bridegroom,” and one day we will join Him at the wedding supper that announces our eternal fellowship with our Lord (John 3:28-30; Revelation 19:9). See these full passages below.

 

All of this brings me to something I so appreciate about our God: He's a wonderful communicator. He uses metaphors, word pictures, examples, and parables to help us understand His love for us. 

 

We can't fully grasp the things of God here on earth, but He wants us to know that great things lay in store for those who love Him (1 Corinthians 13:12; 2 Peter 3:13).

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A glimpse at how this metaphor is used in Scripture

In the Old Testament when God's people followed pagan gods, the Lord would often compare them to an unfaithful wife.

Jeremiah 3:20 “But like a woman unfaithful to her husband, so you, Israel, have been unfaithful to me,” declares the LORD.  

Ezekiel 16 describes Israel as an adulterous wife. And in the book of Hosea, the prophet Hosea experiences firsthand how painful it is to have a wife who treats her husband as Israel treated God. See His Love Knows No Bounds and Major Warnings in Old Testament Narratives.

We also find this metaphor throughout the New Testament. These are a few examples. 

The words of John the Baptist describe Christ as the bridegroom for the Church: 

 

John 3:28-30: “You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Messiah but am sent ahead of him.’ The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must become greater; I must become less.” 

Under divine inspiration, Paul used this metaphor to warn the Corinthians of compromise and false teachings: 

 

2 Corinthians 11:2: “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband, to Christ, so that I might present you as a pure virgin to him.” 

Yet, this is more than a metaphor. It is a divine mystery: 

 

Ephesians 5:24-33: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.’ This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”

It is a metaphor that describes our eternal relationship with the Lord:

 

Revelation 19:9: Then the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” And he added, “These are the true words of God.”

Bible Love Notes