Instructions to Christian Households

July 3, 2016

Ephesians

Chapter 5, Part 3
Instructions for Christian Households

Who is God that He Can Tell Us How To Live?

Genesis 1:27
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

2 Chronicles 20:6
"LORD, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you.

If God is who he says he is, he has the authority to lead you wherever he wants, not just in “religious” things but in everything.

2 Timothy 3:16
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

Ephesians 5:21
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[b] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[c] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

We talked a lot about this verse on February 7th of this year in the “Love is a Verb” sermon series. Click here to listen to that sermon.

Ephesians is all about the church being the church, so instead of hitting on the roles of husbands and wives in a relationship, we'll talk about how it affects the church.

How Does This Affect Culture?

Paul blows away the cultural idea at the time that women were worthless in a few ways:

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
- They submit to each other

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.
- Women have the choice to submit to their husbands, not because of a social structure, but because of Christ.

23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
- This is putting the weight of responsibility or the relationship on the husband.

24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Just like the church follows Christ because of his character, so the wives should want to submit as well.

This is about freedom, not oppression!

How Does This Affect People Around You?

Husbands, lead with strength and character, with humility, selflessness and love.  Your wife and the people around you will see that.

Wives, follow him in humility and love, with selflessness and sacrifice.  Your husband and the people around you will see that.

Everyone around you will know that you have a happy marriage and happy family, and people in our culture want that! You can represent Jesus, solely by how you relate to you spouse, girlfriend, or boyfriend.

How Does This Affect the Church?

Having healthy families shows that what we believe is actually ingrained in us, not just a side thing we do on Sundays.  Marriage affects the effectiveness of the church!

Gary Thomas captures this dynamic in Sacred Marriage: 
“We allow marriage to point beyond itself when we accept two central missions: becoming the people God created us to be, and doing the work God has given us to do. If we embrace – not just accept, but actively embrace – these two missions, we will have a full life, a rich life, a meaningful life and a successful life. The irony is we will probably also have a happy marriage, but that will come as a blessed by-product of putting everything else in order.”

31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

We should be living so closely to Jesus, that Living Faith and Christ are like one flesh. This should convict us and propel us corporately to really live out what we are reading.

Communication Card

- I will seek God this week about what changes need to be made in my life and marriage to better represent Christ.
- I will pray about what I need to do as part of Living Faith to better be one flesh with Jesus.
- I will read through Ephesians once this week.