The Marriage Metaphor

[Walter and Deborah]

Monday 8-15-22 2nd. Day Of The Weekly Cycle, Av 16 5782 56th. Summer Day

The Marriage Metaphor

Read: Ephesians 4:2–13 | Bible in a Year: Psalms 91–93; Romans 15:1–13
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Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2

After twenty-two years together, I sometimes wonder how my marriage to Merryn works. I’m a writer; Merryn is a statistician. I work with words; she works with numbers. I want beauty; she wants function. We come from different worlds.

Merryn arrives to appointments early; I’m occasionally late. I try new things on the menu; she orders the same. After twenty minutes at an art gallery, I’m just getting started, while Merryn is already in the cafe downstairs wondering how much longer I’ll be. We give each other many opportunities to learn patience!

We do have things in common—a shared sense of humor, a love of travel, and a common faith that helps us pray through options and compromise as needed. With this shared base, our differences even work to our advantage. Merryn has helped me learn to relax, while I’ve helped her grow in discipline. Working with our differences has made us better people.

Paul uses marriage as a metaphor for the church (Ephesians 5:21–33), and with good reason. Like marriage, church brings very different people together, requiring them to develop humility and patience and to “[bear] with one another in love” (4:2). And, as in marriage, a shared base of faith and mutual service helps a church become unified and mature (vv. 11–13).

Differences in relationships can cause great frustration—in the church and in marriage. But managed well, they can help us become more Christlike.

How have differences between you and those close to you helped you both to grow? How can differences between church members help to develop godliness?

Heavenly Father, please use our differences to help us mature.

To learn how to strengthen your marriage, visit Making Choices That Will Transform Your Marriage | Our Daily Bread University

INSIGHT

In Ephesians 4:2, the apostle Paul urged believers in Jesus to “be completely humble and gentle.” He spoke about gentleness in his other letters as well. He was the founding pastor of the church at Corinth (Acts 18:1–11), yet soon after he left, the believers rejected him as a true apostle.

Instead of coming down hard on them, however, he appealed to them “by the humility and gentleness of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:1). In his letter to another church, Paul urged two feuding sisters to reconcile and asked that their “gentleness be evident to all” (Philippians 4:5). The Scriptures show us that we’re to be kind, gracious, respectful, and gentle to everyone.

By Sheridan Voysey|August 15th, 2022

Marriage Ephesians Four:2-13

2 With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;

3 Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

4 There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;

5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism,

6 One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.

7 But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.

8 Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

9 (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

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Love, Walter and Debbie

[Mama Etna]

My husband and I are pretty much opposites when it comes to personality.  But yet we blend to become a perfect match.

[JohnR7]

God has a plan for Husband and Wife to learn and grow together and help each other along the way. My wife is from the Philippines so she has a very different culture. Yet people love her because of her kind & gentle and loving ways.