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In this first week of our Marriage After God 30-week devotional series, we’re asking a powerful question: Does your marriage reflect the gospel—the amazing love and grace of God?
As humans, we long for purpose. It’s built into our very design. Unlike any other creature, we ask questions like, “Why am I here?” and “What am I made for?” The answer is found in the truth of Scripture—we were created in the image of God.
Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
From the beginning, God gave both man and woman purpose. We were made to reflect His nature, His creativity, and His love. That means our lives—and our marriages—carry significance. Your marriage isn’t random. Whether you’re walking through joy or hardship, God has a purpose for you together.
When we remember that our spouse was made in the image of God, it changes how we see and treat one another. We begin to honor and love each other not just as husband and wife, but as God’s beloved creation.
Genesis 2:24 tells us, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
In marriage, two become one—not just in body, but in purpose. Though each of us has individual gifts and callings, when we come together, those purposes align under God’s greater design. Our marriage becomes a living testimony of His power and love.
Ephesians 5:25-33 beautifully illustrates this: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.”
This passage reminds us that marriage is more than companionship; it’s a reflection of Christ and His Church. When we love, forgive, and reconcile with one another, we are displaying the gospel to the world.
Our purpose in marriage isn’t just to make each other happy—it’s to make God known. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.” When we love sacrificially, when we forgive quickly, and when we choose reconciliation over resentment, we become living pictures of God’s redemptive story.
Marriage gives us a daily opportunity to live out the gospel—to show our children, our friends, and the world what grace looks like. Every act of love, every humble prayer, every moment of unity points others back to Jesus.
We’ve learned over nearly two decades of marriage that purpose isn’t found in grand achievements—it’s found in the everyday yeses to God. Reading His Word together, praying through conflict, encouraging one another in faith—these simple acts shape a marriage that glorifies Him.
As we continue through this devotional series, we invite you to reflect:
A marriage after God is an extraordinary journey of knowing Him and allowing Him to use our union for His purposes. Let’s live that purpose—together.
Aaron Smith (00:00)
So the question is, does your marriage reflect the gospel, the amazing love and grace of God?
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Marriage After God podcast where your hosts Erin and Jennifer Smith. Hi everyone. If you’re tuning in for the first time, welcome. We are actually launching today, this episode is the first week in a 30-week devotional series based on our 30-day devotionals, husband and wife after God. Now just to clarify, we did launch October 1st with the introduction. So if you missed out on that and you want to kind of know what to expect in this series and we also shared a little bit of the background of
when we wrote these books and published them back in 2013, you can go back and listen to that. So we’re beginning today. This episode is titled God’s Purpose for Your Marriage. First topic. First topic. So we’re going to be discussing today what that is. What’s God’s purpose for us and our marriage? But before we get into that, I want to invite you, as usual, again, if this is your first time, subscribe now, hit that like button, leave us a comment on what you loved about this episode, what God’s teaching you in through this devotional.
And also, make sure you grab a copy of these devotionals if you haven’t done so already to go through with us. You can go to shop.marriageaftergod.com and just search for husband after God or wife after God. You’ll find the bundle there. ⁓ join us in, join in with us this 30-week devotional series starting right now. This is week one. Here we go. God’s purpose. Yeah, we’re going to talk about God’s purpose. Why don’t we dive into this? What’s beautiful about us as humans is just like we were just talking about with other creatures, we’ve been created uniquely from all of creation. We have been given something endowed with something very special. And I believe our purpose, I shouldn’t say I believe it.
our purpose is derived from this very truth that we’re getting into is that each and every one of us, you, your spouse, your neighbor, every human that exists on this planet has been created in the image of God. And we need to recognize this. We need to remember this because this is the base foundation for everything moving forward is like, wait a minute, there’s something unique in me that I’m not just another creature. I’m not just an
animal as the world is going lie to us. we’re not random. It was not a random event that we exist today. There was purpose from the beginning. random at all. And I’ll even suggest that your marriage is not random. That no matter where you’re at, if it’s hard or good or strong or weak, whatever situation you’re in, your marriage has a purpose. Why don’t you Genesis 1-27 just to be reminded of exactly how the Bible
I will. And just as a side note for because this is the beginning of our series, the scripture that we’re going to be sharing with you guys throughout each episode comes straight from the husband and wife after God devotionals. And so at the beginning of each topic, each day, you’ll see just a list of scripture that you can dig more into. And we’ll be sharing some of those. Genesis 1 27 is one of these scriptures. It says, so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him.
male and female he created them.” What I love about this is it talks about man in general and this word man in the Old Testament, it represents men and women. And you can see this because then it goes on and says, male and female he created them. So male and female, husband and wife, man and woman, both unique in nature, unique in the way God created us, but equally made in the image of God, each one of us. It’s not that man is more in the image of God or woman’s less in the image of God or
woman’s more in the image of God and man’s less. No, no. We as humans, man and woman, are in the image of God. That’s what God created, how He created us. And it even says that you see the Trinity happening. Let us make man in our image, which is amazing and powerful. And again, the more we can recognize the reason we started the devotionals this way and the reason we’re starting this 30-week devotion this way is
Everything stems from this truth, this understanding of recognizing who made us, who the creator is, and the purpose that we’re deriving from that comes from that foundation of, I was made in God’s image. Yeah, that’s really good. ⁓ Far advanced than anything else in all of creation are humans. I know we touched on that already, but just to remind you guys that ⁓ we’re not an accident and we don’t just exist.
Like Aaron said, we were created in the image of God and so we reflect His character. And so if He’s got purpose, we have purpose. Genesis 1.26 kind of continues on this ⁓ support of being built in God’s image. It says, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish and the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So right here in the very beginning.
We see not only men and women being created, but then being given a job to do. That’s purpose. That’s part of our purpose. Yeah. I would even say this is more than a job because it doesn’t say, you know, go feed the birds. It doesn’t say go, you know, tend to the livestock. It says be over or dominion over, which is a much higher calling. He’s also making that distinction that we are set apart. We are different than the other things roaming around.
He didn’t give this mandate to any of the other creatures that he made or to the stars in the heavens or anything like that. Instead, when he made man and woman in his image, he did it for a reason. He said, let’s make man and woman in our image and they’re going to be over the earth that we created for him, for her. They have not just a job but a purpose in their creation. ⁓
And this is just the surface level part of that creation. It’s like, let’s have a co-manager of this world we just created and let’s make it man and woman. So just to further this idea that we were created in God’s image and just how unique the human body is in husband after God, I just wanted to pull this quote. says, you are living proof that God is real because think about it. Think about the human body. We’re actually talking with our kids about this and how every
small cell in our body, has so many working parts in order for that one cell to function. And then let alone have all these different parts functioning in different ways. And they all have to be functioning at the same time in order for a human body to work. And so you look at humans and you just know there had to have been intelligent design behind this. There had to have been someone who is infinite in power.
and creativity to come up with this. And I just want to make that note because I think it’s really cool. And the fact that each one of us in every part of our, like you said, the cell contains our DNA that God designed and this DNA has the plans and the design for each one of us individually in every single cell of our body. And then think about our minds, okay? We can comprehend, we can discern, we can contemplate, we can question, we can reason.
we can invent. These are things that God himself can do, which is pretty awesome to think about. Again, going back to us being created in his image and ⁓ how we reflect his image. So that word, that idea of reflecting his image is we’re slowly honing in on this purpose that God has us for and reflecting his image in this world is what we’re getting at. And we’re going to be digging more into this.
and how our marriages do that and how we individually do that. But it’s important to value the truth that God made your spouse in his image. This is something, this is huge. Like, of course we’re like, yeah, God made us in his image. But how often in our marriage do we forget that? Like when I talk to you disrespectfully, I’m talking to someone that God made in his image, God’s own creation, God’s own daughter.
And I mistreat you. so recognizing this and you can go beyond your marriage, we’re supposed to. You look at any person. Yeah. Ever. Being able to honor them, respect them and love them because God created them and that there’s value in life. They have intrinsic value, not because of who they are, what they do, how much money they make, where they live, anything. None of that other than they are made in the image of God. That’s where our value stems from. ⁓
⁓ purpose stems from as well. Yeah, and next week we’re going to touch on marriage by design, which is really cool and just how God designed and established marriage. I just want to note that because you said that your spouse is made in God’s image, ⁓ your spouse’s purpose adds to the fullness of your purpose in marriage. So together, you guys complete that vision and reason why God created marriage. And so I just I think that that
is something worthy of us to consider and think about. 10, 6-9 says this, And so we get this picture of God creating man, God creating woman, and then bringing them together in
covenant of marriage to create this full picture that we see for God’s purpose. And something to realize here is this coming together and becoming one, no longer two flesh, is to realize that though I have my own individual relationship with God and though my wife has her own individual relationship with God, we can pursue God separately and individually. And we may even have slightly varying purposes and like ⁓
giftings and talents as individuals. As we talk about in the Marriage After God book, and we always talk about when you come together and become one flesh, the individual purposes are no longer the main focus. Doesn’t mean that they go away. Maybe they do. But we are one flesh and we begin to go in the same direction together. And we look at what the things we’re doing, say, how do these align together and where do they not align and how can we make them align? We begin to orient our hearts and our minds in our direction.
together rather than separately. And I think that’s actually a hard thing to do over time, is it takes time to be like, hey, how are we becoming more one flesh in all these different aspects of our lives, rather than how do we maintain our individuality? And how do we, I want to keep my stuff over here, you keep yourself over there. It’s something, it’s really good for us to recognize that the Bible makes it very clear we are no longer two but one. And so all of the individualness,
slowly melds together, sometimes quickly, into a unique oneness that we chase God’s purpose together with. So good. So I want to move a little bit further into this idea of a purpose for marriage now that we’ve established the individual value, but also the marriage with counterparts, you know, and being unified in one flesh. And I think Ephesians 5,
25 through 33 is in both sets of devotionals as a reference verse, so let’s just read it all. Yeah, and if you are new to being a Christian, maybe you’ve never heard of this verse before, but this is probably the most famous scripture on husbands and wives and roles and how do we look at each other and how do we behave. But we want to highlight what Paul highlights in it. And it’s not so much like here’s the rules on how to behave as a husband.
a wife, and more so when you walk these things out, this is what it’s representing and why we want to walk these things out. So I’m going to read this. starts in verse 25, Ephesians 25-33. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle.
or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hate his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. And I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that
she respects her husband. So we’re talking about the purpose of marriage and in our devotionals we share that the purpose of marriage is to reflect God’s love story. What does this mean and what does it have to do with this verse that you just shared in 32? This mystery is profound that I am saying it refers to Christ and the church. So the mystery part if you notice, so just above this it talks about the wife and how she is to love her husband and then it goes into husband’s loving
their wives, but the rest of it is explaining how Christ loves the Church. And often I feel like we look at this and we say, well, so I need to do this, which is true. It says love your wives as Christ loves the Church, and then it explains how he does it. so husbands are to try and love like that. But the point he’s making is look at the image your marriage bears in this world. Look at the purpose of your marriage, and it is to represent Christ
and the church. So if you go back down, scroll to that, says, this mystery is profound. He’s pointing out, he’s like, this is a mystery. The mystery of marriage and the mystery of Christ and the church are the same mystery. And when a marriage operates this way, know, wives submitting to their husbands out of reference for Christ, husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church, when those two things take place, when the husband and the wife love like that, walk like that, behave like this,
realize that their purpose is to reflect this mystery, this profound mystery, which is Christ and the Church. And so when we talk about the purpose of your marriage, this is it. The reason Jennifer said in the beginning, we’re not going to like say, you should be an author or you should go be a pastor or you should, like, we don’t know what the specific dynamic elements of your specific purposes, but at the core foundation of why marriage exists,
why God brought you and your spouse together and what
In this first week of our Marriage After God 30-week devotional series, we’re asking a powerful question: Does your marriage reflect the gospel—the amazing love and grace of God?
As humans, we long for purpose. It’s built into our very design. Unlike any other creature, we ask questions like, “Why am I here?” and “What am I made for?” The answer is found in the truth of Scripture—we were created in the image of God.
Genesis 1:27 says, “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
From the beginning, God gave both man and woman purpose. We were made to reflect His nature, His creativity, and His love. That means our lives—and our marriages—carry significance. Your marriage isn’t random. Whether you’re walking through joy or hardship, God has a purpose for you together.
When we remember that our spouse was made in the image of God, it changes how we see and treat one another. We begin to honor and love each other not just as husband and wife, but as God’s beloved creation.
Genesis 2:24 tells us, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
In marriage, two become one—not just in body, but in purpose. Though each of us has individual gifts and callings, when we come together, those purposes align under God’s greater design. Our marriage becomes a living testimony of His power and love.
Ephesians 5:25-33 beautifully illustrates this: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.”
This passage reminds us that marriage is more than companionship; it’s a reflection of Christ and His Church. When we love, forgive, and reconcile with one another, we are displaying the gospel to the world.
Reflecting the Gospel Together
Our purpose in marriage isn’t just to make each other happy—it’s to make God known. 2 Corinthians 5:20 says, “We are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.” When we love sacrificially, when we forgive quickly, and when we choose reconciliation over resentment, we become living pictures of God’s redemptive story.
Marriage gives us a daily opportunity to live out the gospel—to show our children, our friends, and the world what grace looks like. Every act of love, every humble prayer, every moment of unity points others back to Jesus.
Living with Purpose
We’ve learned over nearly two decades of marriage that purpose isn’t found in grand achievements—it’s found in the everyday yeses to God. Reading His Word together, praying through conflict, encouraging one another in faith—these simple acts shape a marriage that glorifies Him.
As we continue through this devotional series, we invite you to reflect:
- How does knowing your marriage has purpose change the way you live?
- Does your marriage reflect the gospel of grace and reconciliation?
A marriage after God is an extraordinary journey of knowing Him and allowing Him to use our union for His purposes. Let’s live that purpose—together.
READ TRANSCRIPT
Aaron Smith (00:00)
So the question is, does your marriage reflect the gospel, the amazing love and grace of God?
Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Marriage After God podcast where your hosts Erin and Jennifer Smith. Hi everyone. If you’re tuning in for the first time, welcome. We are actually launching today, this episode is the first week in a 30-week devotional series based on our 30-day devotionals, husband and wife after God. Now just to clarify, we did launch October 1st with the introduction. So if you missed out on that and you want to kind of know what to expect in this series and we also shared a little bit of the background of
when we wrote these books and published them back in 2013, you can go back and listen to that. So we’re beginning today. This episode is titled God’s Purpose for Your Marriage. First topic. First topic. So we’re going to be discussing today what that is. What’s God’s purpose for us and our marriage? But before we get into that, I want to invite you, as usual, again, if this is your first time, subscribe now, hit that like button, leave us a comment on what you loved about this episode, what God’s teaching you in through this devotional.
And also, make sure you grab a copy of these devotionals if you haven’t done so already to go through with us. You can go to shop.marriageaftergod.com and just search for husband after God or wife after God. You’ll find the bundle there. ⁓ join us in, join in with us this 30-week devotional series starting right now. This is week one. Here we go. God’s purpose. Yeah, we’re going to talk about God’s purpose. Why don’t we dive into this? What’s beautiful about us as humans is just like we were just talking about with other creatures, we’ve been created uniquely from all of creation. We have been given something endowed with something very special. And I believe our purpose, I shouldn’t say I believe it.
our purpose is derived from this very truth that we’re getting into is that each and every one of us, you, your spouse, your neighbor, every human that exists on this planet has been created in the image of God. And we need to recognize this. We need to remember this because this is the base foundation for everything moving forward is like, wait a minute, there’s something unique in me that I’m not just another creature. I’m not just an
animal as the world is going lie to us. we’re not random. It was not a random event that we exist today. There was purpose from the beginning. random at all. And I’ll even suggest that your marriage is not random. That no matter where you’re at, if it’s hard or good or strong or weak, whatever situation you’re in, your marriage has a purpose. Why don’t you Genesis 1-27 just to be reminded of exactly how the Bible
I will. And just as a side note for because this is the beginning of our series, the scripture that we’re going to be sharing with you guys throughout each episode comes straight from the husband and wife after God devotionals. And so at the beginning of each topic, each day, you’ll see just a list of scripture that you can dig more into. And we’ll be sharing some of those. Genesis 1 27 is one of these scriptures. It says, so God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him.
male and female he created them.” What I love about this is it talks about man in general and this word man in the Old Testament, it represents men and women. And you can see this because then it goes on and says, male and female he created them. So male and female, husband and wife, man and woman, both unique in nature, unique in the way God created us, but equally made in the image of God, each one of us. It’s not that man is more in the image of God or woman’s less in the image of God or
woman’s more in the image of God and man’s less. No, no. We as humans, man and woman, are in the image of God. That’s what God created, how He created us. And it even says that you see the Trinity happening. Let us make man in our image, which is amazing and powerful. And again, the more we can recognize the reason we started the devotionals this way and the reason we’re starting this 30-week devotion this way is
Everything stems from this truth, this understanding of recognizing who made us, who the creator is, and the purpose that we’re deriving from that comes from that foundation of, I was made in God’s image. Yeah, that’s really good. ⁓ Far advanced than anything else in all of creation are humans. I know we touched on that already, but just to remind you guys that ⁓ we’re not an accident and we don’t just exist.
Like Aaron said, we were created in the image of God and so we reflect His character. And so if He’s got purpose, we have purpose. Genesis 1.26 kind of continues on this ⁓ support of being built in God’s image. It says, God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish and the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. So right here in the very beginning.
We see not only men and women being created, but then being given a job to do. That’s purpose. That’s part of our purpose. Yeah. I would even say this is more than a job because it doesn’t say, you know, go feed the birds. It doesn’t say go, you know, tend to the livestock. It says be over or dominion over, which is a much higher calling. He’s also making that distinction that we are set apart. We are different than the other things roaming around.
He didn’t give this mandate to any of the other creatures that he made or to the stars in the heavens or anything like that. Instead, when he made man and woman in his image, he did it for a reason. He said, let’s make man and woman in our image and they’re going to be over the earth that we created for him, for her. They have not just a job but a purpose in their creation. ⁓
And this is just the surface level part of that creation. It’s like, let’s have a co-manager of this world we just created and let’s make it man and woman. So just to further this idea that we were created in God’s image and just how unique the human body is in husband after God, I just wanted to pull this quote. says, you are living proof that God is real because think about it. Think about the human body. We’re actually talking with our kids about this and how every
small cell in our body, has so many working parts in order for that one cell to function. And then let alone have all these different parts functioning in different ways. And they all have to be functioning at the same time in order for a human body to work. And so you look at humans and you just know there had to have been intelligent design behind this. There had to have been someone who is infinite in power.
and creativity to come up with this. And I just want to make that note because I think it’s really cool. And the fact that each one of us in every part of our, like you said, the cell contains our DNA that God designed and this DNA has the plans and the design for each one of us individually in every single cell of our body. And then think about our minds, okay? We can comprehend, we can discern, we can contemplate, we can question, we can reason.
we can invent. These are things that God himself can do, which is pretty awesome to think about. Again, going back to us being created in his image and ⁓ how we reflect his image. So that word, that idea of reflecting his image is we’re slowly honing in on this purpose that God has us for and reflecting his image in this world is what we’re getting at. And we’re going to be digging more into this.
and how our marriages do that and how we individually do that. But it’s important to value the truth that God made your spouse in his image. This is something, this is huge. Like, of course we’re like, yeah, God made us in his image. But how often in our marriage do we forget that? Like when I talk to you disrespectfully, I’m talking to someone that God made in his image, God’s own creation, God’s own daughter.
And I mistreat you. so recognizing this and you can go beyond your marriage, we’re supposed to. You look at any person. Yeah. Ever. Being able to honor them, respect them and love them because God created them and that there’s value in life. They have intrinsic value, not because of who they are, what they do, how much money they make, where they live, anything. None of that other than they are made in the image of God. That’s where our value stems from. ⁓
⁓ purpose stems from as well. Yeah, and next week we’re going to touch on marriage by design, which is really cool and just how God designed and established marriage. I just want to note that because you said that your spouse is made in God’s image, ⁓ your spouse’s purpose adds to the fullness of your purpose in marriage. So together, you guys complete that vision and reason why God created marriage. And so I just I think that that
is something worthy of us to consider and think about. 10, 6-9 says this, And so we get this picture of God creating man, God creating woman, and then bringing them together in
covenant of marriage to create this full picture that we see for God’s purpose. And something to realize here is this coming together and becoming one, no longer two flesh, is to realize that though I have my own individual relationship with God and though my wife has her own individual relationship with God, we can pursue God separately and individually. And we may even have slightly varying purposes and like ⁓
giftings and talents as individuals. As we talk about in the Marriage After God book, and we always talk about when you come together and become one flesh, the individual purposes are no longer the main focus. Doesn’t mean that they go away. Maybe they do. But we are one flesh and we begin to go in the same direction together. And we look at what the things we’re doing, say, how do these align together and where do they not align and how can we make them align? We begin to orient our hearts and our minds in our direction.
together rather than separately. And I think that’s actually a hard thing to do over time, is it takes time to be like, hey, how are we becoming more one flesh in all these different aspects of our lives, rather than how do we maintain our individuality? And how do we, I want to keep my stuff over here, you keep yourself over there. It’s something, it’s really good for us to recognize that the Bible makes it very clear we are no longer two but one. And so all of the individualness,
slowly melds together, sometimes quickly, into a unique oneness that we chase God’s purpose together with. So good. So I want to move a little bit further into this idea of a purpose for marriage now that we’ve established the individual value, but also the marriage with counterparts, you know, and being unified in one flesh. And I think Ephesians 5,
25 through 33 is in both sets of devotionals as a reference verse, so let’s just read it all. Yeah, and if you are new to being a Christian, maybe you’ve never heard of this verse before, but this is probably the most famous scripture on husbands and wives and roles and how do we look at each other and how do we behave. But we want to highlight what Paul highlights in it. And it’s not so much like here’s the rules on how to behave as a husband.
a wife, and more so when you walk these things out, this is what it’s representing and why we want to walk these things out. So I’m going to read this. starts in verse 25, Ephesians 25-33. Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle.
or any such thing that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hate his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound. And I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let the wife see that
she respects her husband. So we’re talking about the purpose of marriage and in our devotionals we share that the purpose of marriage is to reflect God’s love story. What does this mean and what does it have to do with this verse that you just shared in 32? This mystery is profound that I am saying it refers to Christ and the church. So the mystery part if you notice, so just above this it talks about the wife and how she is to love her husband and then it goes into husband’s loving
their wives, but the rest of it is explaining how Christ loves the Church. And often I feel like we look at this and we say, well, so I need to do this, which is true. It says love your wives as Christ loves the Church, and then it explains how he does it. so husbands are to try and love like that. But the point he’s making is look at the image your marriage bears in this world. Look at the purpose of your marriage, and it is to represent Christ
and the church. So if you go back down, scroll to that, says, this mystery is profound. He’s pointing out, he’s like, this is a mystery. The mystery of marriage and the mystery of Christ and the church are the same mystery. And when a marriage operates this way, know, wives submitting to their husbands out of reference for Christ, husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church, when those two things take place, when the husband and the wife love like that, walk like that, behave like this,
realize that their purpose is to reflect this mystery, this profound mystery, which is Christ and the Church. And so when we talk about the purpose of your marriage, this is it. The reason Jennifer said in the beginning, we’re not going to like say, you should be an author or you should go be a pastor or you should, like, we don’t know what the specific dynamic elements of your specific purposes, but at the core foundation of why marriage exists,
why God brought you and your spouse together and what
