Introduction
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Paul is pleading for unity: in the church, home, with children, with servants and masters. Submit is a hard word, but it melts all tensions. True love must forget self and seek the best for the one you love.
Bond of Love for the Church
Christ is the head of the church, His body. He is the savior of the church. The church is subject to Christ. He sacrificed to make the church holy, without stain or blemish. She should be blameless. “Washing of water through the word.” A bride was ceremonially bathed before the wedding. This probably refers to the cleansing of baptism. All of us who comprise the church have been washed.
Husband and wife
Husband is to love his wife like Christ loved the church. Therefore, he makes her look good (his queen). He protects her and his whole family. He works to make his wife and home radiant, meaning no blemish. Why? If the man does his part, then the wife can submit. The house does not have two heads (Read Genesis). You see, the idea of male and female was God’s idea (Genesis 1:27). Marriage was designed by God to meet the first problem of the human race: loneliness, therefore a Helpmate, helper was part of the design. The same word used of God in Psalm 46:1: “A very present help in trouble.”
Marriage was planned to bring happiness, not misery. Adam said: “I have finally found the one who can complete me, who takes away my loneliness, and will be as dear to me as my own flesh. She is so beautiful! She is perfectly suited to me. She is all I will ever need” (Genesis 2:23).
Marriage is leaving other relationships to establish a permanent relationship between man and woman. Leave father and mother. Honor and love them, but leave them. Both husband and wife must refocus their lives together, and nothing takes precedence over marriage relationship—not career, advanced education, hunting, golfing, televised sports, over-involvement in church, children, especially a wondering eye (lust) for someone else by either party.
Cleave. The inseparable joining of husband and wife. In other words to adhere, to stick, to be attached by some strong tie (how about Jesus). You cannot be separated without damage to both husband and wife in an intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual way. Such is the case with many who separate and ultimately divorce because of SIN issues.
Oneness. The two shall become one flesh, which means: No adultery or other person receiving your effections. To divide or let someone come between the two is to fracture the two.
Conclusion
In Christian marriage there are not two partners, but three. The third being Jesus Christ.
CLOSING COMMENT FORM THIS EVANGELIST: There are some of you out there (you know who you are) struggling with these very issues. Listen to me Closely, because I speak to you having experience with this personally: Do you want to heal your marriage? “The answer which you seek is found in the Cross! The solution which you seek is found only in the Cross!” The Word of God in Romans 6 tells us that the only remedy for sin, the only solution for sin, the only answer to sin, is the Cross of Christ, which becomes the object of our faith because of the finished work of Jesus there. In other words, the Holy Spirit through Paul takes the Believer straight to the Cross. Remember, Paul is not speaking here to unbelievers, but rather to Believers. As we attempt to live for God, and I mean live for God properly, this tells us that we must ever understand that it is the Cross of Christ where we must begin, and where we must end. There is nothing after the Cross of Christ, because there needs to be nothing after the Cross of Christ. Jesus paid the our penalty and sin debt at the cross.
Ephesians 5:21-33
21) Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.
22) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church:
24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the
25) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
27) That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
28) So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loves his wife loves
29) For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourish and cherish it, even as the
31) For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto
33) Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; an
the wife see that she reverence her husband.
