Good morning, everyone. It is a great day to be here
together. We've had a wonderful worship so
far and I need it. I don't know about you, but I
need it. I need it every Sunday.
And maybe it seems like this Sunday.
I need more than others getting our minds back in a place where
it needs to be. We've sung words that reflect
our faith, that point to our faith, that remind us of our
faith. And that has helped me this
morning. So thank you for teaching me in
song and for teaching one another in song as we're going
to study today. That's one of our purposes and
as followers of Christ, to build one another up.
So thank you for doing that. Thank you for the prayers.
I have been benefited already from being here.
And I hope you will be uplifted and guided by God's word.
And I hope you will show an example to me of how to do some
of the things we're going to do today, because I am a young man
teaching on passages that take a lifetime of practice.
And we're talking about submission, we're talking about
marriage, we're talking about being filled with the Spirit.
There's things in here we're talking about today that I feel
inadequate to teach on, to be frank with you, But it's in the
word. We're studying through the book
of Ephesians every time. I've been teaching lately.
We've worked our way through this book of Ephesians and I'm
not going to skip this. Just like any other part of the
word, we are going to be constantly growing in this.
And so I I solicit your guidance and your example in the things
we're going to talk about today. So we've been studying through
the book of Ephesians, and we know this book is to remind
Christians of their spiritual blessings in Christ and because
of that to call Christians to specific kind of action.
And we're right now in the middle of the call to action.
That is the second-half of this letter to the churches in
Ephesus or the churches in that region.
We are called to walk worthy of the calling that we are called
by. We've made it through all of
this part of the outline so far. We've made it through chapter
four. We were talking about walking in
purity, and we're told to walk not as Gentiles, but to walk in
love and to walk as followers of Christ, children of light, and
to walk as wise. This is where we're kind of
pushing ourselves through in this study.
And now we're talking about a call to walk in harmony, and
it's going to give us guidance for a specific set of
relationships in our life. The first kind we're going to
talk about in this category, We're going to get into husbands
and wives today. Next chapter we'll get into
parents and children, masters and servants, and a call to walk
in victory after that. But for now, let's pick up where
we left off last week. The start of Chapter 5 told us
that we are to therefore be imitators of God.
As dear children. We we remembered how that should
be a natural instinct that we should want to.
If we have an admiration for God, we should want to walk like
him to follow him because he's the standard.
He has all all things good for us.
He has all things in our best interest and we should walk as
imitators of God. Way on down in the chapter.
This is all an extension of that thought to walk as imitators of
God. Just get a couple of verses
running. Start from last week.
We read verse 15. See then that you walk
circumspectly, like Christmas Day after church.
Keep your head on a swivel, being aware of the spiritual
realities, the spiritual battles, the influences that are
around us, and the need to walk with a perspective that is well
aware of what's going on in God's perspective.
Not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the
days are evil. This is what we left off talking
about last time, the value of our time.
And it's going to be continue on the same flow of thought.
Our time has value. Everything we do as Christians,
every relationship, every interaction, every thought,
every motive has meaning and we need to use it for the value
that it has because the days are evil.
Verse 17 therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the
will of the Lord is. And here we go into Part 2 of
this study. Verse 18 says and do not be
drunk with wine, which is dissipation.
So he's going to give us a contrast here.
This word dissipation just basically means a waste.
Dissipation is taking something and just almost like taking
something like a valuable liquid or a drink and just pouring it
out on the ground instead of using it for its value, he he
says. Being drunk is a dissipation.
It's a waste, It's a throwing away of something.
And being drunk is a waste of time.
It's a waste of life. It's a waste of your energy.
It's a waste of what could be done with our life, which is
being filled with the spirit. Instead, this dissipation talked
about specifically to alcohol, alcohol alone, just to give it a
monetary number. And according to the US Center
of Disease Control, in 2010 alone, 2010 excessive drinking
cost the US economy $250 billion.
That's that's ten years over 10 years ago.
It's been a while. Those numbers are probably
greater with inflation, $250 billion.
That's a monetary thing that says it's a waste.
It's a waste of our time, it's a waste of our energy.
It causes loss in our lives. And what is really drinking?
What is drinking? Drinking is a response to the
challenges, the pains and the monotony in one's life.
People drink for many different reasons.
Maybe the most common might be people drink because they're
bored and they want to have fun. Monotony, It's a response to
monotony. People drink because maybe they
have pain in their life, they're suffering through something, and
it's a way to dull the pain and the challenges we go through.
It's an escape, is really what it ends up being.
Drinking is an escape from reality.
And what we've already talked about in the last chapter is God
doesn't want us to avoid the reality we're in.
He wants us to walk aware of our reality and deal with it in a
godly way, deal with deal with it with godly processes, godly
thoughts, and godly motives and intentions.
Now he lists drunkenness here as something to avoid because of
dissipation. But I think you could put any
number of things in the spot that fall in line with
dissipation, that fall in line with worthlessness.
And instead of filling our lives with the spirit like we're going
to talk about, we could fill any, any number of thing that
here will be a waste to us. And we talked about last time,
the doom scrolling, getting on our phones, our devices, they
say an average of 8-9 hours a day we might spend on devices.
Anything you could put in this spot that would be dissipation,
a waste of what God has given us would also fit.
But drunkenness definitely has a lot of consequences with it,
between the sexual immorality, the bad decisions, the inhibited
decision making that's that happens when we drink or when
when drinking happens. It's all a waste.
And so instead, he says instead we should be filled with the
spirit. And I guess one last thought on
this. We need to all be aware of what
our personal escape is. Some people might be drinking,
and some people that might be any number of things that might
seem less and less detrimental to health.
But remember, our spiritual perspective is different than
just avoiding what might hurt us so bad.
We have to remember there are time has value.
And so an escape from reality could be any number of things.
Any number of things that waste our time.
Video games, relationships, you you can insert anything, you
know your own thing. I know my own things that get in
the way of what I need to be doing in my life.
It doesn't mean kicking back and and watching some TV might not
always be a bad thing, but it can be escape that prevents us
from doing this important step in our Christian life, being
filled with the spirit that is the alternative.
God doesn't just leave us with an empty OK, you don't do this,
but just stop, he says. Don't do this.
Instead, fill it with something good.
Fill it with the spirit. What does that mean?
We're going to talk about that a little bit.
But if your life has challenges, this should be your response.
If your life has challenges filled with the Spirit, if your
life has pains, filled with the Spirit.
If your life has monotony, fill it with the Spirit.
Don't you want joy to pervade your life?
Don't you want to live a life of passion?
People seek for passion and joy and meaning in so many areas of
life, and there's nothing wrong with having a job you love, that
you're passionate about and that you were looking forward to
every day when you go to work. But I think a lot of people are
really upset or striving to find that because they have to find
it there. We find our key core meaning in
life and our passion in the work that we do for Christ, and we're
meant to do that. There is meant to be a longing
there. May we fill it with a thing that
is supposed to fill that gap in our lives and it's being filled
with the spirit and all the things that that means and all
the ways that that manifest itself in our lives.
His hope, his reality, his way and his attitudes.
So what does it mean to have a spirit filled life?
Verse 19 goes on to say speaking to one another in songs and
hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in
your heart to the Lord, That's the first thing he's going to
tell us in line with living with a spirit filled life is to first
of all talk to one another In this sometimes we think of our
you know, people say I can have a relationship, just me and God.
I don't need anybody else. But the first command is to
teach and talk to one another. When we come to worship, when we
sing together, when we praise God together, we are talking to
God and to one another. If I tell you, and if I teach to
you, and if I sing to you or you to me, in God's words and psalms
and hymns, I am affirming my my commitment.
I'm affirming my convictions in my faith.
That is a core step in building a strong faith, is affirming
your own faith to others. But at the same time, other
people are built up. God's ways are great.
It's sometimes hard to get yourself to come to church maybe
and you have other things going on but you benefit others and
they get benefit from you and and you or yourself are
benefited from this process of teaching one another and and
these things he goes on to say in psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs. I've read people try to
distinguish what's what specifically and you may be able
to do that. I don't have a super clear
understanding of what maybe a Psalm would be versus a hymn and
a song. I think the key here is the
diversity. May we in our songs not be
afraid of diversity and different types of songs in
different occasions, in sadness, that we could sing out a song of
of praise to God in mourning. That I, the one I think of right
now is in these blue binders of in times of distress and sorrow.
Lord, I come to you, 'cause there's nowhere else to go.
Basically, that song that was written by the woman who had
cancer and she was praising to God through it all.
There's a time for that. There's a time for just saying
great are you Lord? And singing to him like we have
in that song and the old hymns we might think of the
traditional songs that we sing. Stand up for Jesus this morning.
There's a place for all of our different song styles and
meanings within the song and motivations in the heart for the
from the songs. Maybe we be not be afraid of
that, and to teach one another and to be willing to sing a song
someone else might enjoy even if we don't like it.
Maybe maybe we sing it to one another with the attitude in the
heart, because ultimately, he says we are making melody in our
hearts to the Lord. It doesn't say that you make a
melody in your vocal cords, because there are many people,
many Christians, who can never praise God and can never teach
one another. If that's the case, because some
people just can't find the melody and that's OK, that's not
what matters here. What matters is the melodies in
the heart and melody is what we are processing in our minds and
devoting our heart to and focusing on.
That's what matters. Yes, practice the song so that
they're easy to listen to and so that we can create a wonderful
noise together. But God cares about the heart
and God. Someone in this audience today
could be singing the most beautiful melody and not praise
God or lick. And someone in this audience
could not be singing any melody whatsoever.
They're just saying the words and they cannot find them a note
and they could praise God more than anyone else in the room.
Our God is awesome that you can start on day one as being a
Christian with no musical knowledge and you can praise him
and teach other people around you with your words.
The second thing he says or an extension of living a spirit
filled life. He says, verse 20, giving thanks
always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ. Why is it important that we use
our time wisely? Because we've got a lot of
thanks. To give always is a lot, and for
all things is a lot of things. There's a lot to cover in our
daily thankfulness, in our daily remembrance, in our marination
of the mind. We have a lot to be thankful
for. We don't have time to waste, to
throw away, to be dissipated. We've got so much good that can
be done. Verse 21 submitting to one
another in the fear of God. So this isn't necessarily a
transition in thought, but he's kind of opening up a new can of
worms, you might say. And the first thing he says is
submitting to one another. He's going to call us to have a
certain set of of submission and and roles that we have in our
lives and our relationships. But there is first an ultimate
call for all Christians to submit to one another in the
proper way. What is submission?
Submission is basically a an unselfless attitude that says
I'm going to put aside what I think or what I want or my own
selfish desires, you might say for the betterment of this
relationship, for the betterment of this context, this
circumstance, out of love. Now, doing that, why do that?
Is it because other people are more valuable than you?
Is it because you are always wrong and you just need to
submit to others? No, that's not what he's saying.
It's a disposition of the mind. It's a meekness like Frank has
been teaching about from the Sermon on the Mount.
It's a place that we get to in our minds that says I'm going to
hold fast on what's true and right, but I'm not going to act
like my way or the highway all the time.
I'm not going to act like I'm above everybody else.
I'm going to be willing to say, OK, let's do it your way.
Let me help you with that. Let's do it your way and let me
join with you in this effort. Not fine if if if you're not
doing my way, I'm not, I'm staying out of this, that's not
my thing. Submitting to one another says I
will serve alongside you and with you in the fear of God.
So first of all, like we said, Christian submission is not a
reflection of innate value. If you submit yourself to
someone else, if I submit myself to spiritual leadership in this
congregation, I'm not saying I'm less valuable of a person and
you are more valuable. That's not what this is saying.
God has given us a system of leadership and headship in
different contexts that is supposed to promote healthy
function. We're going to get into that.
So it doesn't. It's not innate value.
It's not saying you're worthless or worthless.
It's not saying you're necessarily correct or not
correct. And it's not saying you are
unimportant to a 'cause if you submit within a structure.
And the most obvious thing we could think of is a business.
If you have ACEO or an upper level management and you say
that person has value to a company.
Any good CEO will say, say the person at the bottom floor of
that company has just as much value to the company as they do
because everyone is holding up an organization.
If if ACEO is great but the floor level workers, we all know
companies that have terrible floor level workers and it
doesn't look good and maybe the bottom line is good, but it's
not a good business. People don't like that business
when they're when they're members at the bottom, are not
kind, loving or supportive or whatever good things.
So your importance to A cause is not any less because you submit
to someone else's leadership or authority.
Those are all the knots with Christian submission.
And it's important to remember what the the biblical headship
is. We learn in this context and
many others, we learn that God the Father is the head of
Christ. The head of man is Christ.
Let me let me say it this way. The head of woman is man.
The head of man is Christ. The head of Christ is God the
Father. We learn that in other passages.
So this is an established authority structure.
Now, does that mean that Christ is any less valuable than God
the Father? Absolutely not.
Now, does it mean that Christ is any less important than God the
Father? Well, we learned that Christ
submitted himself. He chose to willingly submit to
God the Father. So we don't look at this
relationship of submission and Christ submission to the Father
with any kind of negative connotation at all whatsoever.
It is the most pure, admirable and sign of strength that we can
imagine, right? So as we go into in just a
minute, submission from the woman to the man, or submission
from a worker to his master, or submission any other way, we
have to remember first that Christ is submitted to God the
Father, and that is not a negative thing in any way.
OK, so Christian submission, first of all, like we said, is a
demonstration and an internalization of a fear of
God. That's what this verse started
by saying, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
That's the first thing he mentions here.
That is the most important that we would show a fear of God and
embody and accept for ourselves a fear of God.
A practical fear of God. It's one thing to say I believe
God is great and powerful and more than me.
It's another thing to practically embody that and
accept that. And Christian submission
demonstrates that. And it takes practice.
Submission is hard. Some people have difficulty
submitting to authority, whether it's a teacher or a policeman or
a government. But it takes practice in a
relationship. There's all kinds of context.
And it takes practice #2. Christian submission establishes
a proper perspective on self. So it's a proper perspective on
God and fear of God, but it's also establishing a proper
perspective on self. James 4 verse 10 says humble
yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.
Thirdly, it utilizes the power of our influence.
By showing submission, we are able to influence others in ways
that we could never in any other way do.
So in first Peter 4, verse three through three.
First Peter 3, verse three, he's talking the context of the
marriage relationship in which an A believing wife is trying to
have an influence on her husband.
But this concept is true universally.
OK, let's read it. It says wives.
Likewise, be submissive to your own husband's.
That even if some do not obey the word, the word of God, they,
without a word, without even saying anything, may be won by
the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct
accompanied by fear. So this is the context about
having an influence on somebody's heart by softening
them and showing them how good this can be in a relationship
that will have an effect on them that softens and changes their
heart. That's true in the marriage, but
that is absolutely true in all of our other relationships.
If I am in the interaction at work with somebody and where it
may be starting to come to a place of at odds where I might
have a reason to lash out or respond in a harsh way, whatever
you might think. But I I show submission and
kindness. That's going to give them the
double take effect, right? Where?
Well, what'd you just say? I was expecting kind of the
opposite. I was expecting a lash out and
you didn't give it. That is an opportunity to
penetrate the hearts of people that we never could have an
effect on any other way, especially people that might
seem the hardest. Works can go a long way and
softening people's hearts. So Christian submission utilizes
the power of our influence and we have to be prepared to accept
disrespect because like we already established, it's about
God fearing God and it's not about us.
The proper perspective oneself on my I go back to my students
because my students are always saying stuff like like me
personally, I want to take that and they always they want to.
It's like they want Peacock, like they're powerful.
By standing up to somebody and telling them off like that does
no good for anyone in any circumstance and it gets a huge
fight outside. It doesn't do any good for
anybody. We have to be willing to accept
disrespect because who cares? Who cares if somebody said
something to me or acted 2 way toward me that was
disrespectful. Guess who looks bad?
Them. The only way you look bad is if
you respond in a bad way. Maybe be willing to accept
disrespect with a Christian submissive attitude.
First four, the fourth thing. It helps us find ways to make
relationships better. So in showing Christian
submission, maybe the most practical thing is we improve
relationships. Relationships strain when there
is an unwilling there's there's not a willingness to bend OR
yield or compromise. It is unavoidable in any
relationship where you're with someone for any amount of time
that you are going to just not run into some kind of conflict.
It helps make our relationships better, Psalm 133 said.
Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell
together in unity. So it takes submission to make
that happen. OK, Christian submission is
going to be, first of all, like he's mentioned to one another.
It's a general command. Then he's going to get into
slave to master, Christian to civil government, Christian to
spiritual government, and wife to husband.
And we're getting into the first verse of that discussion.
Verse 22 says, wives submit to your own husbands as to the
Lord. First of all, this is a command
to wives. This verse does not say
husbands. Your wives are to respect you.
That's not what this says. This says wives.
He's not talking to any man in the room.
He's not talking to the husband, he's talking to wives.
Wives are the command here and it is not the job of the husband
to make them submit. Just as it is equally counter
biblical for a woman to not submit to her husband in the
Lord, it is just as counter biblical for a husband to make
his wife submit to him. Because that's not submission,
that is force. That's how you get some very
ugly and oppressive regimes and we've seen that in different
places in the world and different cultures that comes
out. It is not the job of the man to
make the wife submit and one might quickly say, well well
then what happens if the wife won't submit?
What's this husband supposed to do?
Nothing. You keep doing your job but it
is not your job. And it is true that if if the
wife will not show submission or the other side, if the husband
doesn't do his part, we're going to get to that in a minute.
You can't have a the relationship God designed.
You're right. Bummer.
It really stinks. It can be really good in
marriage. It can be really bad.
But the husband cannot try to overcompensate.
If the other side isn't is doing its part OK and and the wife is
not the problem. That's not what I'm saying.
What I'm getting at is watching out for that line of whose job
is who in this situation. So this is the wife's job and it
says submit to your own husbands.
So this isn't a general command. Hey men, women.
No, this is a command in the home where all of our world
starts. It starts in the home.
It's to your own husbands. So one husband to one woman.
This is the discussion. Not every man around you, wives
submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.
OK, is he saying wives is basically your husband and the
Lord? Here they are.
You serve them both with equal with equal authority in your
life. That's not what he's saying
because nowhere in the Bible does man take the place of God
in telling you what you should do or your commands outside of
God's realm. Remember this headship is God
the Father, Christ, man woman in the sense that you cannot take
woman out from under the headship of Christ and ask her
to do something that God is not authorized or commanded that
would be going outside of her authority primarily to the Lord.
So what does this as to the Lord mean?
It's great. It is an attitude.
Just as when women decide to follow the Lord, they have a
willing submission to the Lord and love and service to God.
It's an attitude of how they submit to the Lord.
The wife should have the same attitude of love and willingness
in this. In this submission.
It's an attitude. It's a motive that the that the
woman is to have. Now I don't want to say a whole
lot about this. And Titus 2, verse three says
the older women, likewise the older women are going to be
given an instruction here to teach the younger women.
I don't want to have to try to say a lot because I'm not in
that position. I think this is primarily the
job of the older women to teach the younger women.
It goes on to say likewise, that they be reverent in behavior,
not slanders, not given too much wine, teachers of good things
that these older women that they admonish the young women to.
And he's going to give a list of things that the older women
should be teaching the younger women to love their husbands.
He has to tell them because it could be hard sometimes, because
the way we are to love their children, to be discreet, chaste
homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the
word of God may not be blasphemed.
So I encourage you, if you're a younger woman here, look to the
wonderful examples that are around you.
Seek out those examples because it is their job, more so to
teach than it is our job as men. So may the women who are older
be ready to give that help as it's given an opportunity.
Verse 23 for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is
head of the church and he is the Savior of the body.
Now we as a marriage unit, any marriage units who are here have
a wonderful opportunity to show us a picture of something God
has intended from the foundation of the world to give us.
It's a picture of Christ in His church.
If you have no other motivation, no other strong desire to make
your marriage work, the greatest thing I think we can do is be
reflection of Christ and his church, and if nothing else will
motivate it. Maybe that will to get us to see
how great of an opportunity we have to reflect.
To our kids, to the people around us, to our community, to
the church, to anybody who sees us.
For husbands, the love that Christ has for His church and
for wives, the submission and love that she has to her husband
like the churches to submit to Christ.
There's a picture happening that may we never mess up, and we
will. But our goal should be to show
the world and show any way we can, that beautiful picture that
God has designed to make for us now.
Biblical headship. The world sometimes thinks of
headship like this fat, lazy man kicking back, ordering barking
orders to his wife. That is not the biblical pattern
of headship. In the biblical pattern,
headship is defined by love and all the things First Corinthians
13 says about love. Get ready.
If you're going to be a leader and a head, that takes a lot of
work. Love, accepting pain for the
betterment of others, You might say sacrifice.
That's what sacrifice is. Accepting pain for the
betterment of others, being long-suffering, taking criticism
in the face of adversity, and having understanding.
You think about Christ. The biblical headship is not
this. This is biblical headship.
This is biblical love and leadership.
May we view that and talk about it like it's not the bad thing
the world wants it to be. Verse 24.
Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the
wives be to their own husbands and everything.
Now, like we've already said, God has ultimate authority over
the wife. But this statement and
everything makes it clear that it's it's not like, OK, this you
have these certain areas that you have headship and these have
others. This is this is a general role
of headship. It's not split up as to who has
headship over what. This isn't everything.
First Peter, we already talked about that verse.
Verse 25 here goes to the husbands.
Husbands love your wives. And just like we read a list of
all the things, that means just as Christ also loved the church
and gave himself for her, that is not barking orders and
looking down on her. That is this.
This is the way that Christ loved the church.
He sacrificed everything. And it wasn't just a momentary,
you know, he got up all the courage to do it once he's he
showed this love to the church. And every day he went out into
the world and did his work and his mission and he preached the
word and he lived the word and he showed the word of God in his
actions. He was the word.
We as husbands are to love our wives like that, you know.
Well, that's that seems like a one thing is not like the other,
but it is. It is and it's not like, well,
what he died for. How can I die for my wife?
It's not like you have to do that.
It's that between nothing and dying for your wife, You do
everything in between. It's not only what Christ did,
it's from from Ground Zero to what he did.
You be ready to do anything and everything for her.
That is the spectrum that is the gambit that is required of of
husbands and showing love and leadership in his home and for
his wife. That is a big call to action.
We've already read a long list of things that it means to have
love and we have a task in front of us.
We could say this alone and we all know, OK, I got some work to
do because this is the example first.
Peter 3 verse seven says husbands likewise dwell with
them with understanding. Dwell with them has a
connotation of stay there, stay there and be with her and take
your time with understanding, as I understand this word.
With understanding. This phrase comes from the where
we get science or knowledge. May we learn and have
understanding and seek to know and seek to learn.
When we first start dating, it's it's automatic.
We know what to do. Instinctively.
I'm going to ask and find out what they like, what they don't
like and do exactly that. It's great of God to give us a
picture of what it looks like before it becomes harder, maybe
so we know what it looks like. May, I didn't mean to switch
that May. We seek to have understanding
and to learn throughout the years of our marriage.
We're in four years right now and I know we have a long way to
go for Taylor and I, and I have not seen all the things that you
have seen. I appreciate your example to the
couples who have been together for a long time and I encourage
you with these verses not because of anything I say,
because I'm just sharing the word with us.
May we have understanding and seek to understand in these
processes and in in these discussions in our daily lives
with our wife giving honor to the wife.
It goes on to say so that your prayers would not be hindered if
we do not show honor to our wives.
That's sin and that hinders prayer.
That's a big deal. It's not some small thing when
we decide to treat our wives with in another way, but maybe
we honour them as they deserve verse 26.
That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of
water by the word. That he might present her to
himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any
such thing, but that she should be blameless, should be holy and
without blemish. So this is discussion, Christ
with his church and the relationship, the connection
with the husband and the wife. And I don't.
I read a lot of commentary on this, and I'm not prepared to
give a strong statement as to what exactly I think all this
means. I'm not for sure.
But what I do know is this is all in the context of the
husband leading the home, the wife submitting that leadership,
and by God's word, leading their home, they should be purified at
the very minimum. That's what this means.
Now, there are other more specific things that people draw
that very well, very well may be true here.
But God's word and God's way should purify and give us a
wonderful home to live in and to participate in the pictures God
has intended without blemish. Verse 28 So husbands ought to
love their own wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves himself.
OK, so he's saying here as their own bodies.
We know that the husband and wife are to become one flesh.
When they are married, they come together.
This is a picture of unity. Husbands and wives need to be
unified and together and one and he's saying as their own bodies
because they we literally are supposed to be 1 and unified.
And it's funny. Here it's it's almost like I
read this through the lens of it, like dumb guy, like he who
loves his wife loves himself. Like, can you not at least do
this? Because if you haven't realized
it yet, it's it's good for her. It's good for you.
That's like the bare minimum. You take care of yourself.
You right, you take care of yourself.
He's going to say you should love your wives because it even
benefits you. Verse 29.
For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and
cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
So if we can't seem to get over the fact, or we can't seem to
get ourselves to show love the way we should, maybe we should
just realize, hey man, this is good for you too, because you
are supposed to be 1 and unified as a couple, the writer says,
just as the Lord does the Church verse 34.
We are members of his body, of His flesh and of his bones.
Are we glad for Jesus, taking us into His body and accepting us
as His flesh and his bones? If we are, may we show that same
love to the wife because we are members together, flesh and
bone. And if we enjoy the benefits of
being Christ, we should make it better for our wives and make it
as good as possible, because we are members together in that one
body relationship. Verse 34.
For this reason, he goes on to say, a man shall leave his
father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall
become one flesh. This is a great mystery, he
says. But I speak concerning Christ
and the church. There's a lot to this.
There are so many depths of this relationship and wonderful and
connection and beautiful betterment.
There are so many wonderful things about this relationship,
he says. But he's talking about Christ in
the church. That's where the meaning here
is. And if wives are doing the the
leaving of their own home, the security of their own home, may
we provide that as husbands to them to provide that same
security, the same strength that they drew from their own home,
if they had that there. Verse 33.
Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his
own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her
husband. Kind of The last comments I'll
make about this is it seems like in a relationship the first
thing to go when there's a disagreement and the the issue
both sides have is the husband feels like he's not respected
and the wife feels like she's not loved.
Our God is so great that just with a few words he kind of keys
on the key IDs, the key ideas we need to love our wives just like
we would for our self, and let the wife see what she respects
her husband. This is really what I think what
the core needs that we both have, and God knows that and he
designed that. We thank you for listening to
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