1Ephesians - Christ and the

ChurchLesson 11

2

Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•Marriage involves a great majority of church members, and it is a relationship in which participants can show to the world a walk either worthy or unworthy of their calling in the Lord.

•God gave the woman to her husband as a “helper” to him (Gen. 2:18) and gave him rule over her soon after their sin in Eden (Gen. 3:16).

3

Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•Paul uses his discussion of mutual submission in human relationships as a way to expand his previous lessons about the sanctity of the spiritual bond that exists between Christ and His church.

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

• In his “double lesson” Paul makes six important points:

a. The husband is head over the wife in the human family;

b. Christ is head over the church in the spiritual family;

c. The wife must submit to the rule of the husband in the human family in all things;

d. The church must submit to the rule of Christ over the church in all things;

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

• In his “double lesson” Paul makes six important points:

e. The reason for the church submitting to Christ: He is its Savior;

f. The reason for wives submitting to husbands: husbands are “saviors” of their wives

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•Another “double lesson” involves the “submission” of husbands to wives.

a. In this way, husbands submit their own needs to those of other family members as he “gives” himself to them;

b. Similarly, Jesus “gave” Himself in life and in death to achieve what was good for His church (Phil. 2:5-8);

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•Another “double lesson” involves the “submission” of husbands to wives.

c. Jesus’ totally unselfish behavior toward the church gives us the pattern for the unselfish exercise of power by husbands toward their families [wives in particular].

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

• Jesus’ purpose in “choosing” the saved was that they might be “holy and without blame” (1:4).

a. He sanctified it.

b. He cleansed it.

c. He made it glorious.

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

• “So”...

a. Christ is head of the church; the husband is head of his wife;

b. Christ is the Savior of His body; the husband is the “savior” of his wife;

c. The church is subject to its Head; the wife is subject to her head;

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

• “So”...

d. Christ rules over the church by love; the husbands rules over his wife by love;

e. Christ gave Himself for the good of the church; husbands give themselves for the good of their wives;

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

• “So”...

f. Christ provided every spiritual need of the church; a husband provides every physical and emotional need of his wife;

g. Christ and the church illustrate the mutual submissiveness that should exist between every husband and wife.

12

Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•The conclusion Paul draws from these truths is that husbands should love their wives as they love their own bodies.

•A simple lesson that some husbands never learn: love directed toward a wife by her husband is invariably returned to him in the form of love, devotion, and submission from his wife.

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•Husbands are far better off in every way when they treat their wives as they should.

•Charles Hodge offers a good perspective on husband-love...

•The unity between Christ and His church is the primary cause for which He heaps bountiful gifts upon the redeemed.

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Ephesians - Christ and the Church

•Chapter Five...

•Verses 22-33 - The Church - God’s Submissive Servants (1)

•Husbands and Wives...

•The “great mystery” is likely not the mutual submissiveness in a marriage that Paul has been discussing.

•Even though our understanding of everything else is subordinate to our perception of Paul’s lessons on Christ and the church, the apostle initially had set out in this passage to teach the saints at Ephesus the importance of submission in a successful marriage.