God’s Word is precious. We use words like inerrant, infallible, authoritative, sufficient, among other terms. Even as we use and believe these terms, that does not prevent us from struggling with passages that cut across the grain of our culture or even some personal convictions we’ve developed. We remind ourselves of Spurgeon’s conviction: “We shall not adjust our Bible to the age; but before we have done with it, by God’s grace, we shall adjust the age to the Bible.”

Much of God’s design is under assault not only outside the church but even among those who name the name of Christ. I say “assault” with some reservation, because I do not believe that everyone who raises questions seeks to assault the Scriptures. They may just have questions. But when we come to that crossroad, how will we respond? In the previous paragraph, Paul urges the Ephesian church to be “filled with the Spirit… submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ” (v. 18, 21).

Everything from this pivoted on Ephesians 5:21: “submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” The church of Jesus Christ submits to Christ. And when it comes to His Word, we have choices to make when it comes to reading and interpreting: do we truly believe the Holy Spirit inspired the Word or do we believe that the writers were more inspired by the culture around them? Marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. Paul, by the Spirit, calls marriage a mystery–which is a secret revealed from heaven.

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