Marriage

A precious sister in Christ asked the question - what is marriage?  Here is my response under the Lord's direction.
As God designed it -

Marriage is a union between a man and a woman which reflects these truths -
As Christ loved the Church and gave His life for her, so husbands are to love their wives (quite sobering). This is done to make her holy, to cleanse her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present Her to Himself as a radiant Church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Wives are to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord Himself (also quite sobering), because the husband is the head of the wife just like Jesus Christ is the head of the Church, His body, of which He is the Savior. As the Church submits to Christ, so a wife is to submit to her husband in everything.
Further on in Ephesians 5 - In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the Church - for we are members of His body. For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.
Marriage is a union that God oversees, establishes, and seals.
From Ephesians again - This is a profound mystery - but I am talking about Christ and the Church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself and the wife must respect her husband.
He wants our Christian marriages to be an example to the world of the way He loves His Bride, the Church.
While I hear your question, and it is a good one, we tend to answer questions from a human perspective. I believe we can no longer do that. The "truth" of humanism will not stand until the end and will give no testimony of Jesus Christ to the world - that is evidenced by the rampant divorce of marriages, even in the Church!
We must instead preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ THROUGH marriage as one tool and avenue which God has provided us.
Therefore, I submit to you that, marriage is about Jesus Christ and His image in the earth. Marriage is about the foreshadowing of a greater glory yet to come - the glory of Jesus Christ being united with His Bride - the Bride He paid a dear price for. The reason He paid the price? It was not for us... It was SO THAT HE would receive all glory and honor and power and praise for all of eternity.
I tell you - Marriage is about bringing God maximum glory. That is the mystery of marriage.
Therefore, we dare not, under the fear of the LORD, enter lightly into marriage. And we dare not continue in our marriages flippantly. We must, in the fear of the LORD, seek to honor our husbands just as we honor Jesus Christ, because in doing so we have the awesome privilege of bringing Glory to God through our marriages! This is both sobering and incredibly exciting!