R Joseph Ritter Jr

Having an E5 Marriage R Joseph Ritter Jr

This is not a self-help book. It is not meant to make your marriage better. This book is meant to deepen your relationship with Christ and encourage you to have a profound love for Him. As we seek to please Christ, we will necessarily improve the way we treat our spouses. It is our testimony and witness to our spouses of Christ's work in us. Deepening our relationship with Christ will have a direct impact on our interpersonal relationships. The question is how? How do we grow deeper in Christ? Paul in Ephesians 5 provides us with a model - Christ is our head, and we are to submit to Him. Then, Paul writes that this same model is to be used in our marriages. But, Paul also says, "This mystery is great." Our guide for daily Christian living and relating to our spouses in marriage is outlined in Ephesians 5, but it's all a "great mystery." Well, that's a lot of help! The meanings of submission and sacrifice in Ephesians 5 were apparently obvious to both Paul and the original recipients of his letter. The answers can also be found generally by reading the entire Bible. So, how do we decipher the "mystery?" We find in Revelation chapters 2 and 3, known as the letters to the seven churches, a grouping of verses in Scripture which concisely spell out what Christ expects of the church and how Christ sacrifices Himself for the church. This book, then, provides an in-depth study of Ephesians 5 through the lens of Revelation chapters 2 and 3, and applies it to the context of marriage.