Marriage Homily
Notes
Transcript
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
I want to talk briefly about marriage.
Specifically, I want to talk about marriage modeling Christ and the Church.
Christ is the head of the church and the church is the body of Christ.
The husband is the head of the wife and the wife is the body of the husband.
Application: Husbands, you stand in the place of Christ. This is the love you are to love your wife with. The headship you exercise is to be Christ-like. On your wife’s worst day, you should be willing to lay down your life for her for her good. While we were still enemies, Christ died for us. She is your own flesh; inseperably joined to you just like the church is joined to Christ. Your calling is to love her as you love yourself. And brothers, nobody ever loved himself with a dominating love.
Wives, you stand in the place of the Church. The love you love your husband with mirrors the love the Church has for Jesus Christ. The submission—yes, that’s the word there—you are to show to your husband is to reflect the same submission you show Jesus Christ. You are to love and respect him be cause he is your own flesh; inseperably joined to you just like the Church is joined to Christ. Your calling is to respect him. And sisters, nobody ever loved herself with a dominating love.
This is a tough topic to talk about, especially in our culture, because people distort this passage by boiling it down into issues of dominance and submission. If that’s what you walk away from this passage with, you’ve missed the point entirely.
Husbands, if Christ gave himself up for his bride, the Church, while we were still his enemies, this is who you are to be to your wife.
Wives, if Christ gave himself up for his bride, the Church, while we were still his enemies… Isn’t a man who is that for you a man worthy of your respect?