Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians - 8

Ephesians 5:22-33

Introduction

I grew up in a baseball family.

Both my brother and I played from age 4 into college.

I played on some good teams and some pretty terrible teams.

The primary difference between the good and bad teams is not that some had superstars and others didn’t.

It is not that some hit a lot of home runs and others did not.

No, the primary difference between a good baseball team and a bad team is their ability to execute the fundamentals.

Field the ground ball.

Make the accurate throw.

Get the base hit.

Over time, if they can keep executing the basics, they are eventually going to win.

When we start talking about the theological truths we have been learning in Ephesians, we can forget to focus on the basics.

When God saved you He placed you in Union with Christ.

Your spiritual position has changed and you are now ‘in Christ.’

The reality of that, the implications of that, are staggering.

And even the primary application of Union with Christ, Unity with Christians, which is the focus of the back half of Ephesians, has profound implications for your life and your role in the Church.

But if we are not careful, we keep these doctrines in the realm of theory…something we merely discuss, debate.

The Apostle Paul does not do that.

He brings these doctrines down and applies them to real, everyday life.

In our text for today, he will apply both of these twin doctrines, Union with Christ and Unity with Christians, to the most fundamental, most basic of human relationships…that of a husband and a wife.

At the most basic, fundamental level, these twin truths make a world of impact.

Ephesians 5:22-33 - 22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,

27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless.

28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his own wife loves himself;

29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,

30 because we are members of His body.

31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

32 This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.

33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

TS - let’s spend the next few minutes walking through this foundational text to see both Unity and Union.

PRACTICAL UNITY (V.

22-29)

This entire text builds on all Paul has already been teaching, starting way back, really in 4:1, to walk worthy of the calling you’ve received.

But as he spelled that out for us, he taught in 5:15 to walk in wisdom, to live wisely.

What does that look like?

As he described that, he said to be filled with the Spirit.

And part of that means to v. 21 - being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

Christians are to submit to one another.

Hypotasso is the verb for ‘being subject’ and means to ‘order underneath’ the other person.

This is how unity manifests itself among God’s people.

If we joyfully, humbly submit to one another…me to you, you to me…then unity will absolutely be our reality.

And unity begins, first and foremost, with our closest relationships.

He addresses the most intimate of all relationships, marriage.

v. 22 - wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

This verse is the source of much controversy.

Unnecessarily so.

But foolish men quote it to their wives so that they can get their way.

Huge mistake, as you’ll see why really soon.

In fact, there is no verb in this verse.

‘Be subject’ in v. 22 is implied, stemming back to v. 21.

It literally reads, ‘wives, to your own husbands.’

So as all of us submit to one another, that includes wives to husbands.

And the fact that Scripture commands wives to be subject to their own husbands was revolutionary for his time.

Men were viewed as more valuable than women in most ancient cultures.

And women were subject to men.

That is not what is taught here.

Not women, but wives.

Not to all men, but to their own husbands.

There is only one man that a wife is to be subject to…her husband.

This was, and is, liberating for women.

Remember, as we talked about last week in v. 21, that this submission is voluntary.

It is never forced.

Never demanded.

It is graciously offered.

It is not guilted, it is given.

Why?

Because of your faith.

End of v. 21…in the fear of Christ.

Out of your reverence to the Lord Jesus, out of your trust in Him, as part of your submission to Christ, you submit to your husband.

This is not because women are less valuable than men.

This is not because women are ‘less than’ men in any way.

This is teaching an equality with order.

Men have been commissioned by the Lord to lead in the Lord’s two primary institutions in the world…the home and the church.

When men lead well, in good and godly ways, everyone benefits.

When they don’t, everyone loses.

Sadly, there are many attempts, surprisingly by male theologians, to limit this command to submit to only wives.

That husbands are commanded to love, not submit.

Here is the problem with that…two things: 1) that ignores v. 21; 2) if husbands do not have to submit because that command is limited only to the wives, then do wives not have to love, because that command is limited only to husbands?

I hope not!

It all comes back to Christ.

End of v. 22…as to the Lord.

Not meaning that your husband is your Lord in the same sense that Christ is, but that your submission to your husband is part of your submission to the Lord.

You submit to Christ, and therefore, submit to your husband.

Verse 23 shows us why that is.

v. 23 - for the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.

It always comes back to Christ.

As Christ is in authority over His people, so the husband has been granted the commission to lead his home and his church well.

The husband mirrors Christ in this relationship.

And that is most definitely not something to brag about and flaunt around.

There is a heaviness to that.

A weight of responsibility.

And notice already how Paul defines Christ’s headship over the church.

He is, end of v. 23 - the Savior of the body.

So what does it mean, then, that Christ heads the Church?