GOD’S COUNSEL ON MARRIAGE
Ephesians: Cosmic Truth For Common People – Part 12
Ephesians 5.21-33
THE FOUNDATIONAL QUESTION FOR MARRIAGE: Am I “In Christ”?
vv. 18 & 21 “… be filled with the Spirit … submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” (esv)
WHAT IS MARRIAGE? Counter-Cultural Covenant Commitment
v. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” (esv)
vv. 28–29 “… husbands should love their wives as their own bodies … For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it …” (esv)
HOW IS IT DESIGNED? FOR Supportive Submission AND Loving Leadership
v. 23 “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.” (esv)
v. 24 “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.” (esv)
v. 25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her …” (esv)
WHAT DOES IT DEMONSTRATE? Jesus’ Love For Us
v. 32 “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.” (niv)
v. 27 “… 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.” (esv)