Ephesians 5:29-33
“No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.”
“No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
Peterson’s translation presents a beautiful picture of mutuality in a marital relationship. There is no dominance. Instead each person loves themself by loving the other. The strengths and weaknesses of each are balanced by the other. When each is fully functional, they combine to form a healthy whole. Together they are enabled to face the world, acting on one another’s behalf. One’s weakness is covered by the other’s strength and vice versa. They submit one to another in this dance of talents. The submission Paul calls for in prior verses works only when husbands submit to their submissive wife’s needs. One way submission, wife to husband, will not work because only half Paul’s proposed formula for marital success is honored.
Lord, thank you for leading Roger and I to learn how we, as individuals, work best together in our own dance of talents. Thank you for helping us over the chasms that formed between us, for healing those fractures and keeping us whole. Thank you for the lifetime of companionship we have with each other because you led us through minefields to a place of wide-open freedom in our walk with each other. Truly, you have been faithful. May we honor you in return.