One of the biggest challenges in any relationship is pride. It is pride that brings the husband and the wife to the point where neither one is willing to do what the Lord would desire them to do. Ephesians 5 sets the stage for this principle just before God opens up a dissertation on marriage.
Ephesians 5:15-21 “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is. And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”
Without spending hours on this, we see that God says we are to be wise with our time. God says that we are to understand His will. That being said, it is not God’s will for your marriage to be hurting, disappointing, or unhappy. It is God’s will, that as “one flesh,” the husband should rejoice with his wife and the wife should rejoice in her husband. These principles are stated in Proverbs 5 and Proverbs 31.
It is also the will of God that you husband, and you wife, be filled with the Spirit of God. This means a whole hearted yielding to God’s Holy Spirit. It is impossible to be prideful if you are filled with the Spirit of God. The evidence of this filling of the Holy Spirit will appear in your attitude toward life and toward one another.
Your spouse is a gift from the Lord. You should be thankful for that gift. Every morning, even before my feet hit the floor, I spend time in prayer. After I thank God for who He is and what He has done in my life, I thank Him for Michelle – every day.
The final phrase of the passage says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” If you will not submit to God, you will not submit to one another. Submission to the Lord crucial to Him working in your hearts to see your marriage reach the potential that God has for it. In submitting to Christ, you can submit to one another. If there is no submission to Christ, what is that? The answer is pride. It is therefore critical that we make our marriage relationship what Jesus says it should be. Husbands and wives both need to remember this one thing in their marriages. First and foremost, it’s what Jesus says.