Our Design in Christ, part 8

The Family of God

The Family of God

We are almost at the end of our series entitled,

Our design in Christ Jesus

our prayer is that God will open our eyes to see, His design for us, that was Paul’s intention writing to the faithful in Ephesus, and our Heavenly Father speaking to you today.

Today we are covering Ephesians 5:22-33

The book of Ephesians is one of the greatest works of Paul covering the dept, height and length of God’s plan for our salvation.

In the first century, Ephesus was the second largest city in the world the most important city in Roman Asia minor, a major sea port and a commercial center, a very wealthy city.

Ephesians were deeply involved in the occult practices, and idolatry,

superstition was part of the culture,

Paul’s ministry flourished, because of the power of God that brought healing and deliverance from demonic oppression.

Paul continues to present to the saints, the faithful in Ephesus how to create a lifestyle that will please God, that welcomes His Holy Spirit and make possible for us to walk in the Spirit.

Let’s pray

God’s design for Wives and Husbands

1 Wives submit to your husbands, as to the Lord.

Eph 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as [a service] to the Lord.

Eph 5:23 For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church, Himself being the Savior of the body.

Eph 5:24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything [respecting both their position as protector and their responsibility to God as head of the house].

This was probably the first time that the church in Ephesus was challenged to implement this new lifestyle at home.

Their culture and behavior were very different,

In the Jewish world in the 1st century, women were little more than servants.

Many Jewish men prayed each morning,

“God, I thank you that I am not a Gentile, slave, or a woman.”

The provision for divorce and remarriage in Deuteronomy 24 had been distorted to include virtually any offense or disfavor in the eyes of the husband.

In Greek society the woman’s situation was even worse. Because concubines were common and a wife’s role was simply to bear legitimate children and to keep house, Greek men had little reason to divorce their wives, and their wives had no recourse against them. Because divorce was so rare, there was not even a legal procedure for it.

Demosthenes wrote, “We have courtesans for the sake of pleasure, we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation, and we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately and being faithful guardians for our household affairs.”

Both male and female prostitution were indescribably rampant, because of their promiscuity, child abuse was widespread.

In Roman society things were worse still. Marriage was little more than legalized prostitution, with divorce being an easy legal formality that could be taken advantage of as often as desired. Many women did not want to have children because it ruined their bodies, and feminism became common. Desiring to do everything men did, some women went into wrestling, sword fighting, and various other pursuits traditionally considered to be uniquely masculine. Women began to lord it over men and increasingly took the initiative in getting a divorce.

Jesus was the first men to value and dignify women, Paul was reaffirming Jesus words and behavior and now challenging the church to do the same, beginning at home.

Wives in Ephesus were much younger than their husbands, especially the “Mother of the family”, they ran their household and gain influence through manipulation.

To be called to submit to their husbands, to honor them, respect them, trust them, was a tall order, it was totally against their lifestyle, besides their husbands did not deserve it. More than two thousand years later, we still struggling with the same issue.

Submission is a relationship out of Love, requires respect, honor, and trust.

Submission is not a demand, or an order is a choice we make, because we love, respect, honor and trust the person.

Yes we submit to God because we know that He knows what is best for us, we love Him and trust Him, so we obey Him.

Paul’s inspired letter by the Holy Spirit, is to tell us how to keep a healthy relationship, enjoying the presence of God, being filled with the Holy Spirit.

2 Husbands love your wives

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives [seek the highest good for her and surround her with a caring, unselfish love], just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,

Eph 5:26 so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word [of God],

Eph 5:27 so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless.

Men in Ephesus in the first century,

Ancient Rome was a man’s world. In politics, society and the family, men held both the power and the purse-strings – they even decided whether a baby would live or die. Families were dominated by men. At the head of Roman family life was the oldest living male, called the "paterfamilias," or "father of the family." He looked after the family's business affairs and property and could perform religious rites on their behalf.

The paterfamilias had absolute rule over his household and children. If they angered him, he had the legal right to disown his children, sell them into slavery or even kill them.

The choice of keeping a child after birth was his, the midwives would wait on his decision, slaves were like property he could use for whatever he wanted.

Paul challenged them to love their wives just as Christ loved the church.

This was a paradigm shift, a new behavior, with great spiritual implications. Unconditional love.

Jesus sacrifice was to sanctify, cleanse and wash the church, so He could present her without spots or wrinkles, blameless.

An impossible assignment without the Holy Spirit, but we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

3 Love them as your own body

Eph 5:28 Even so husbands should and are morally obligated to love their own wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.

Eph 5:29 For no one ever hated his own body, but [instead] he nourishes and protects and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,

Eph 5:30 because we are members (parts) of His body.

Love your wife the same way you love and care for your own body, the Greco Roman culture, was not about Love, the Agape love of God, the love God requires for our wives, so he gave us a clear example of how this love looks like.

We will do anything to take care of our own body, especially to avoid pain. Of course I’m talking about someone who takes a good care of themselves.

4 Becoming one

Eph 5:31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND HIS MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED [and be faithfully devoted] TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH.

Eph 5:32 This mystery [of two becoming one] is great; but I am speaking with reference to [the relationship of] Christ and the church.

Eph 5:33 However, each man among you [without exception] is to love his wife as his very own self [with behavior worthy of respect and esteem, always seeking the best for her with an attitude of lovingkindness], and the wife [must see to it] that she respects and delights in her husband [that she notices him and prefers him and treats him with loving concern, treasuring him, honoring him, and holding him dear].

Becoming one is a mystery that can only happen in a marriage relationship when we submit in love to God and one another.

I understand how difficult of topic this is specially in our society today, we have become very close to a Greco-Roman society. Selfish, all about seeking personal pleasure and disregarding others.

To create a culture fulfilling God’s design for us must start at home.

It is possible for wives to submit in love to their husbands, and husbands to submit and love their wives, love, honor and respect must be part of it,

begins when we make Jesus the Lord of our lives.

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Joh 3:16 To receive Jesus we need to accept Him as God’s son, repent from our sins and a life of selfishness, asking Him to be our Lord and savior, not that we deserve it, but is a gift from God. If this is your desire today, please repeat this prayer after me? Heavenly Father I’m sinner, I’m sorry for my sins, I’m willing to turn away from my sins. I receive Christ as my savior, I confess Him as Lord And from this moment on I want to follow and serve Him, in the fellowship of His church, In Jesus name, Amen!

1Co 11:23 For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread;

1Co 11:24 and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, "Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:25 In the same manner Healso took the cup after supper, saying, "This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me."

1Co 11:26 For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death till He comes.

1Co 11:27 Therefore whoever eats this bread or drinks this cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

Heb 9:14 dead works, acts, sins

E mau aku ka loko maika’i o ka Haku, Iesu Kristo; me ke aloha a ke Akua, a me ka launa pu ‘ana mai o ka Uhane Hemolele ia ‘olua, a me makou apau. Amene.