Desiring God - Part 14
I am still reading Desiring God by John Piper. Today my post is on Piper’s chapter about marriage.
Piper does a good job with the subject of marriage. His main biblical text is Ephesians 5:25-30. Piper says that in marriage we should pursue our joy by pursuing the joy of our spouse. He pulls deeply from the example of Christ and the Church.
I like this summary from Piper. “In other words, husbands should devote the same energy and time and creativity to making their wives happy that they devote naturally to making themselves happy.“
I really like Piper’s tie of Ephesians 5:31,32 with Genesis 2:24. He really hammers on marriage being a “profound mystery.” He does a great job of giving the Old Testament context. Paul tells us in Ephesians that the husband and wife become one flesh just like Christ and the Church become one body.
Piper goes on to say, which I really like, “The mystery is this: God did not create the union of Christ and the church after the pattern of human marriage; just the reverse! He created human marriage on the pattern of Christ’s relation to the church.“ Marriage was not just an accident. It was purposefully planned to mirror Christ and His Church.
Piper then spends time on the biblical pattern of the home with the husband as the head. He does a good job explaining these roles in a very biblical and accurate fashion.
I will have a couple of other posts upcoming related to marriage and based upon something that put together a few years ago.