THE DIVINE IDEAL OF MARRIAGE
[p. 13] THE DIVINE IDEAL OF MARRIAGE
1 Corinthians 7:32 - 34; Ephesians 5:22 - 30; Proverbs 31:10-12; Proverbs 31:23; Proverbs 31:28,29
It is evident that the divine ideal of marriage is not presented in 1 Corinthians 7. We can understand that it could not be on account of the carnal state of the company to which the apostle was writing. We are, however, privileged to have the judgment of a spiritual man — the apostle — as to the way that marriage is looked at naturally. Naturally the husband seeks to please his wife and the wife seeks to please her husband, but the apostle shows us that if we are on that line it will lead to worldliness and destroy spirituality. We do well to take note of the danger.
My thought at this time is to call attention to the great contrast when we have the divine ideal of marriage before us. For that we must turn to Ephesians and Proverbs. Ephesians 5 gives the ideal husband, that is Christ, and Proverbs 31 gives us in a figurative way the ideal wife, that is the assembly. We find then that, instead of marriage being a disadvantage and full of peril that leads to worldliness and not giving the Lord His rights, if it is taken up spiritually in the light of the present truth, the husband and wife become mutually of the greatest advantage to one another. They do not seek to please one another, but seek the true spiritual advantage of one another. There is an immense difference between the two ideas.
In Ephesians 5 we get nothing about the activities of the wife; the chapter is full of the activities of Christ as the Head. In His service of love He does everything for the advantage of His wife. That is the model for every Christian husband. Christ seeks to do everything for the spiritual advantage of that company which He loves and for which He gave Himself.
When we turn to the model wife in Proverbs 31 we find that her activities are for the advantage of her husband. She is not on the low level of merely pleasing him, but on the high level of seeking his advantage in every possible way.
In Ephesians the service of Christ to the assembly requires [p. 14] subjection, not exactly to authority but to the service of love. As the assembly is subject to the service of Christ’s love she takes on the qualities of the woman of worth in Proverbs. She is passive in Ephesians, but the subject woman of Ephesians 5 becomes the active wife of Proverbs 31. She serves and lays herself out to minister to the spiritual advantage of her husband. That is the ideal marriage. We must realise the different level of 1 Corinthians 7 and come to the platform of that of which Christ and the assembly are models. Christ is everything for the assembly and the assembly is everything for Christ. In the working of it out everything that contributes to the advantage of the other is sought. Whatever Christ does is for the advantage of the assembly and whatever the assembly does is for the advantage of Christ. Think of the gain to Christ in having such a wife as the assembly, one who cares for His interests and seeks His interests in every way! That is the model our beloved brother and sister should pursue — the husband seeking to express the love of Christ to his wife and she brought into subjection to that love. Each believing husband should be set that his wife should have features of the assembly, and each believing wife should receive impressions and become active for the advantage of her husband. I would press on our brother and sister that it should be the keynote of their life to minister to the spiritual advantage of one another. Then all would work out happily. “The heart of her husband confideth in her .... She doeth him good, and not evil, all the days of her life .... Her husband is known in the gates”. Every believing wife should be filled with a holy desire that her husband should be known in the assembly in spiritual worth. Then instead of marriage being a drawback and leading to the Lord not having His place, all the activities of the husband and wife would work together so that there would be great advantage and gain. The husband and wife would be better off in their relationship than out of it.
May the Lord put our beloved brother and sister on this lofty platform! We should covet and cherish the divine ideal in regard of these relationships. May the Lord help us!
A Word given at a Marriage Meeting, 1939