Thursday: Read Ephesians 5:21-33. This is some would say a “harsh” passage about marriage. How do you view it? What is the writer trying to get to you as you read this passage? Is there a single or double standard in this for husbands and wives? Why or why not? What is God using this passage to share with us?
From the NSRV:
21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church. 33 Each of you, however, should love his wife as himself, and a wife should respect her husband.
From The Message version: 21 Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another. 22 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. 23 The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. 24 So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. 25 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting. 26 Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, 27 dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. 28 And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor - since they're already "one" in marriage. 29 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, 30 since we are part of his body. 31 And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." 32 This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. 33 And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
This passage is about obedience and the faithful fulfillment of Christ's ministry. Paul is urging both members of the marriage to work together in a mutual understanding and support relationship, so that their work for Christ might be complete. Paul knew that trying to serve Christ is difficult. Any time anyone or any family seeks to serve the Lord, it seems almost deliberate that things come along that could easily discourage or disappoint us.
Here at a retreat I'm attending for the Board of Trustees of Asbury Seminary, we heard yesterday in two worship mediations, of two families and what they've suffered in recent years. One, the pastor of a church here in Florida, shared how he and his wife received word that their daughter was in a very serious traffic accident. It was touch and go for a long time. Their daughter had been married only a year and a half, had just started a teaching career, and on the first day of school someone plowed into her and left her almost dead. When she regained the ability to talk she told her husband he could leave if he wanted, and he said no, he had committed to her in sickness and in health. He quit his job and the two moved into the pastor's home so she could be helped by all members of the family. After a year, the two moved out on their own and they've since had a son. To this day she receives therapy. The pastor said, through it all, the most wonderful thing is God is with us.
The second pastor, an elderly retired college president and professor, shared his story of the last year of his married life. And he had traveled extensively thorughout his career and never imagined he wouldn't. Yet for one solid year, the last in his wife's life, the most exciting trip was to their mailbox out front near the street. And he said he couldn't have been happier during his life. All his wife expected from him, he said, was "to be." He also gave testimony to the power of knowing, God is with us.
Whatever your situation, whatever the trial or temptation, God is with you. Are you with God? Are you seeking, first as an individual, secondly as a couple or as a family, to serve Him? Again, there should be no double standard or difficulty in your own setting to discourage or disappoint you. Seek God in your midst to carry on with what God has expected of you.
PRAYER: God of all love, come and visit all marriages today. Come in a sweet, loving way to those who are struggling in either their commitment to each other or their commitment to You. Speak words of hope and presence, and may your Spirit guide each to fulfillment. We pray in Christ Jesus' precious name. Amen.
Have a great and glorious day.
e.v.
