Monday, May 31

Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12


The focus of 10 Minutes with God this week is Paul’s teaching to husbands and wives in Ephesians 5. If you are married, begin your week by thanking God for your partner in marriage and asking him, by his Spirit, to be the “third cord” of your marriage.
If you are not married – ask the Lord to use this teaching to either prepare you for that relationship or to enrich all of your current significant relationships.


Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 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 of the 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 his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church – for we are all 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. Ephesians 5:21-33


We have a product at our house called “Gorilla Glue.” The bottle claims that Gorilla Glue can bond everything from wood to glass to foam – and is faster and stronger than any other bonding agent available. While I’m not quite convinced that Gorilla glue is all it claims to be, I do know that it can bond skin if you aren’t careful!

Paul here turns his attention to how new life in Christ should manifest itself in the central relationships of our lives – including marriage. And he begins, in effect, with the “Gorilla Glue” of marriage – Christ himself.

“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”

Notice that Paul is assuming that all of our relationships begin with a prior relationship with Christ. That is, our relationship with Jesus is to shape our relationships with others. Paul has already taught us that we become adopted into our new family when we hear the word of truth, believe, and then are sealed by the Holy Spirit (chapter 1). And that once Jesus takes up residence in our hearts through the Holy Spirit (chapter 3), we are to put off our “old selves” and put on our “new selves” which are created to be like God (chapter 4). As new people we are then to treat others the way Jesus would treat them – with respect, compassion and forgiveness (chapter 4).

What does all this have to do with marriage? Paul is telling us that the first step in growing a great marriage relationship is to be fully submitted to Jesus Christ – and to be growing more and more like him. He is telling us that the Gorilla Glue of marriage is Christ himself. As we allow Jesus to shape our hearts and lives, we will find all of our relationships – including marriage – deepened and strengthened by him.

Close your time with God today by thanking him for your husband or wife (if you are married), or for the central relationships in your life, and by asking him to teach you how to love others as he loves them.

Brian Coffey