Through Ephesians -10- To Love and to Cherish
Reading: Ephesians 5:21-33
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Eph. 5:21
I. Submitting to Each Other
A. A sign of Spirit - Filling (5:18)
1. Grammatically dependent on be filled with the Spirit
2. Speaking ... singing ... giving thanks ... submitting.
B. This Rejects all Self - Seeking
1. Submitting to one another governs what follows about relationships at home.(v.21)
2. Love isn’t self-seeking. I Cor.13:4-5
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 (NIV)
3. Service characterizes disciples’ relationships.
24 Also a dispute arose among them as to which of them was considered to be greatest. 25 Jesus said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who exercise authority over them call themselves Benefactors. 26 But you are not to be like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest, and the one who rules like the one who serves. 27 For who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves? Is it not the one who is at the table? But I am among you as one who serves. Luke 22:24-27 (NIV)
II. As the Church submits to Christ (vv.22-24)
A. Wives to husbands as to the Lord
1. In a significant and practical sense, a wife’s spirituality is worked out in relationship with her husband.
2. The spiritual model for wives to look at as they relate to their husbands is the Church submitting to Jesus.
B. Keeping Our Heads
1. Doesn’t imply inferiority of species. As if Wife::Husband = Church::Christ
2. That “headship” idea must include the last part of that statement.
a. Σωτηρ “Savior” is used in Greek literature with all the following meanings: “Rescue from peril, Protecting, seeking the benefit or well-being of someone, attending to the inner/ personal needs of someone.”
b. Husbands are not to use their “headship” to fulfill their own fancies.
c. Wives are to treat there husbands as men who live for their well-being
C. So wives to your Husbands
1. The pattern wives follow as they live their role is the relation of the church to Jesus. It is a role of complete devotion filled with a desire to please him in all things big and small.
III. As Christ Loved the Church (vv.25-33)
A. Husbands Love (αγαπατε) your wives
1. Just as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her.
2. That this is an even greater form of submission follows from the just as... clause which follows.
B. Jesus, a Husband’s Model
1. Men, do you want to know how to love your wives. Look at how Jesus loved the church and gave himself up for her. Handed himself over Turned himself in Jesus took the punishment we deserved rather than see us take it. He stood between God and us and said “Whatever is due them, lay it on me instead.”
2. Jesus was completely devoted to the holiness, the sanctity of his bride. He put her life before his own.
C. Loving our Wives as our Selves
1. Care for our wives like we care for our bodies? (Better than that, I hope!)
2. We love ourselves by loving our wives, even when we do so self-sacrificially.
3. Love and respect. (v.33)
a. So often we get this reversed Husbands respecting their wives, but not so much expressing their love, wives loving their husbands but not expressing their admiration.
b. Women need to see their husband’s love expressed to them.
c. Men need to see their wives respect for them expressed too.
The Bottom Line:
Let us truly Love and Cherish each other in marriage and look for ways to Submit to each other in all our relationships out of reverence for Christ.