Example: Focusing on Marriage like Christ and the Church

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

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Eph 5:25.

Biblical Context

The essence of Christianity is centered upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The sum and substance of being a Christian is trusting Christ with the entirety of one's being. The height of the Christian life is adoring Christ, the depth of it loving Him, the breadth of it obeying Him, and the length of it following Him. Everything in the Christian life revolves around Jesus Christ. Simply put, Christianity is Christ. Steven J Lawson

Note: And gave himself for it. This is intended to express the strong affection which husbands ought to have for their wives, though he takes occasion, immediately afterwards, to commend the grace of Christ. Let husbands imitate Christ in this respect, that he scrupled not to die for his church. One peculiar consequence, indeed, which resulted from his death,—that by it he redeemed his church,—is altogether beyond the power of men to imitate. -

John Calvin and William Pringle, Commentaries on the Epistles of Paul to the Galatians and Ephesians (Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software, 2010), 318–319.

? Insert Question Example

Preaching Themes: Divorce, Love, Marriage Christian marriage is from God. God joins two people together for life. Jesus is specific: Humans are not to separate what God has joined. That makes the statement of actress Gwyneth Paltrow and musician Chris Martin a sad one. In announcing their divorce after 10 years of marriage they stated, “It is with hearts full of sadness that we have decided to separate.” They even coined a new term for divorce: “conscious uncoupling.” We are eyewitness of the unraveling of the institution of marriage. The problem is not just in the redefinition of marriage, but in loss of respect for it as well. —Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell - Jim L. Wilson and Rodger Russell, “The Sadness of ‘Conscious Uncoupling,’” in 300 Illustrations for Preachers, ed. Elliot Ritzema (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2015).

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