Loving the Way we Ought To Eph

 Loving the Way we Ought To  Eph. 5:28-31  EBC   12/30/07

  Looking at these verses we can see how God goes back and forth between the wife and the husband, Christ and the church. Read again V.28. J. Vernon McGee- “the thing a couple needs for it’s marriage to be great is not a champagne supper but to be filled with the holy spirit”. The beauty of a real marriage is when the husband and wife minister to each other and put the other’s needs before their own and stop being so self centered. Do you know what self-centered is? Do you know who is at the center of self-centered? Do you know what the antidote of self-centered is? J. Vernon McGee- Eve was created to be a helpmeet for Adam.

Adam was incomplete until they were together. God fashioned her, and I think she was the loveliest thing in creation when God brought her to Adam. One man has said that she had to be better looking than man because God had practiced on man that He had experience when He made woman. She was a helpmeet for Adam. She compensated for what he lacked. She was made for him and they became one. Man should care for her the way he cares for his own body. If our body is sick we get it medicine, if it’s tired we get it some rest, if it’s hungry we get it some food. 

  Man and woman are so close, the Hebrew word for man is ish, for the woman it is isha.

  John Piper- the one-flesh union between man and wife means that in a sense they are now one body so that the care a husband has for his wife he has for himself. They are one. What he does to her he does to himself.

  Geoffrey Bromiley says, “as God made man in His own image, so He made earthly marriage in the image of His own eternal marriage with His people”.

I. The Directive (5:28)

  A. Caring love-

    1. John MacArthur- The husband who loves his wife as Christ loves the church will no more do anything to harm her than he would to harm his own flesh.  It is a self-sacrificing love.

      a. Nourish-to provide for her physical and spiritual needs

      b. Cherish-to use physical love and affection to give her comfort, protection and security. Greek word- Thalpo- to cherish with tender love, to keep warm. This emphasizes tenderness and intimacy. Wives need to feel secure and protected in their marriage.  

        1. When she needs strength, he seeks to give her strength, when she needs encouragement he seeks to give that encouragement. A husband who allows his wife’s needs to go unmet will come feel the pain of it.

        2. The blessed marriage is the marriage in which the husband loves his wife with unlimited caring. Husbands we need to be teaching our sons to care for their wives. Christ provides for us because we are members of His body, as we are to provide for the wives because they are a part of our bodies. The headship role is something that carries greater responsibilities not greater privileges. At the heart of this is our willingness to sacrifice our privilege. 

  B. Unbreakable love-

    1. Paul emphasizes the permanence and unity of marriage. One barrier to a successful marriage is for one or both partners to fail to leave their parents.

      a. Cleave-to be glued or cemented together. God’s design the two shall become as one.