As Christians, we must reject that of the world and only embrace God's view of marriage and family revealed in His eternal, authoritative Word.

As men are called by God to be the head of their homes and to lead their wives, they must embrace what the apostle Paul teaches in Ephesians 5: They men are to love their wives sacrificially—like Christ loved the church. And they are to love their wives in a sanctifying manner—leading them in their pursuit of holiness.

In many Christian homes today, the wife ends up being the spiritual leader by default because husbands don’t reflect the biblical mandate outlined in Scripture. In Genesis 2 and Ephesians 5, the authors of Scripture describe that husbands are assigned by God the role of headship and leadership.

At its heart, marriage isn’t ultimately about the husband or wife. God did, in His goodness, give you a spouse for each other's encouragement and edification and much more. But marriage is primarily a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ and His bride, the church.

In Ephesians 4, the apostle Paul teaches that communication is vital for the health and longevity of marriage. Pastor Tom explains the kind of speech that must characterize your conversation with your spouse as you interact with each other on a daily basis.

As Christians, our speech must be marked by wholesome words that honor our great God. In our marriages, we must seek never to let unwholesome words come out of our mouth, but only those that are in accordance with grace.

For us, as Christians, communication is to be used to edify and build up one another as well as honor and bless God. And the same is true for marriages and families. Christian communication is characterized by choosing gracious words but also by using words that are always truthful and honest.

In Ephesians 4, Paul encourages Christians to use sound speech in marriage and to flee from language that isn’t gracious and edifying.

For every one of us, conflict is an unavoidable reality—there is no way of fully escaping it. As Christians, we have a new nature, but we still live in our flesh—our unredeemed humanness. Therefore, we sometimes communicate and respond in our marriages in ways that are sinful. Thankfully, the apostle Paul has given us Ephesians 4 to help believers become better communicators in marriage.