Ephesians 5 (Part 2) | Wade Branch

Good morning, everyone. It is a great day to be here

together. We've had a wonderful worship so

far and I need it. I don't know about you, but I

need it. I need it every Sunday.

And maybe it seems like this Sunday.

I need more than others getting our minds back in a place where

it needs to be. We've sung words that reflect

our faith, that point to our faith, that remind us of our

faith. And that has helped me this

morning. So thank you for teaching me in

song and for teaching one another in song as we're going

to study today. That's one of our purposes and

as followers of Christ, to build one another up.

So thank you for doing that. Thank you for the prayers.

I have been benefited already from being here.

And I hope you will be uplifted and guided by God's word.

And I hope you will show an example to me of how to do some

of the things we're going to do today, because I am a young man

teaching on passages that take a lifetime of practice.

And we're talking about submission, we're talking about

marriage, we're talking about being filled with the Spirit.

There's things in here we're talking about today that I feel

inadequate to teach on, to be frank with you, But it's in the

word. We're studying through the book

of Ephesians every time. I've been teaching lately.

We've worked our way through this book of Ephesians and I'm

not going to skip this. Just like any other part of the

word, we are going to be constantly growing in this.

And so I I solicit your guidance and your example in the things

we're going to talk about today. So we've been studying through

the book of Ephesians, and we know this book is to remind

Christians of their spiritual blessings in Christ and because

of that to call Christians to specific kind of action.

And we're right now in the middle of the call to action.

That is the second-half of this letter to the churches in

Ephesus or the churches in that region.

We are called to walk worthy of the calling that we are called

by. We've made it through all of

this part of the outline so far. We've made it through chapter

four. We were talking about walking in

purity, and we're told to walk not as Gentiles, but to walk in

love and to walk as followers of Christ, children of light, and

to walk as wise. This is where we're kind of

pushing ourselves through in this study.

And now we're talking about a call to walk in harmony, and

it's going to give us guidance for a specific set of

relationships in our life. The first kind we're going to

talk about in this category, We're going to get into husbands

and wives today. Next chapter we'll get into

parents and children, masters and servants, and a call to walk

in victory after that. But for now, let's pick up where

we left off last week. The start of Chapter 5 told us

that we are to therefore be imitators of God.

As dear children. We we remembered how that should

be a natural instinct that we should want to.

If we have an admiration for God, we should want to walk like

him to follow him because he's the standard.

He has all all things good for us.

He has all things in our best interest and we should walk as

imitators of God. Way on down in the chapter.

This is all an extension of that thought to walk as imitators of

God. Just get a couple of verses

running. Start from last week.

We read verse 15. See then that you walk

circumspectly, like Christmas Day after church.

Keep your head on a swivel, being aware of the spiritual

realities, the spiritual battles, the influences that are

around us, and the need to walk with a perspective that is well

aware of what's going on in God's perspective.

Not as fools, but as wise redeeming the time because the

days are evil. This is what we left off talking

about last time, the value of our time.

And it's going to be continue on the same flow of thought.

Our time has value. Everything we do as Christians,

every relationship, every interaction, every thought,

every motive has meaning and we need to use it for the value

that it has because the days are evil.

Verse 17 therefore, do not be unwise, but understand what the

will of the Lord is. And here we go into Part 2 of

this study. Verse 18 says and do not be

drunk with wine, which is dissipation.

So he's going to give us a contrast here.

This word dissipation just basically means a waste.

Dissipation is taking something and just almost like taking

something like a valuable liquid or a drink and just pouring it

out on the ground instead of using it for its value, he he

says. Being drunk is a dissipation.

It's a waste, It's a throwing away of something.

And being drunk is a waste of time.

It's a waste of life. It's a waste of your energy.

It's a waste of what could be done with our life, which is

being filled with the spirit. Instead, this dissipation talked

about specifically to alcohol, alcohol alone, just to give it a

monetary number. And according to the US Center

of Disease Control, in 2010 alone, 2010 excessive drinking

cost the US economy $250 billion.

That's that's ten years over 10 years ago.

It's been a while. Those numbers are probably

greater with inflation, $250 billion.

That's a monetary thing that says it's a waste.

It's a waste of our time, it's a waste of our energy.

It causes loss in our lives. And what is really drinking?

What is drinking? Drinking is a response to the

challenges, the pains and the monotony in one's life.

People drink for many different reasons.

Maybe the most common might be people drink because they're

bored and they want to have fun. Monotony, It's a response to

monotony. People drink because maybe they

have pain in their life, they're suffering through something, and

it's a way to dull the pain and the challenges we go through.

It's an escape, is really what it ends up being.

Drinking is an escape from reality.

And what we've already talked about in the last chapter is God

doesn't want us to avoid the reality we're in.

He wants us to walk aware of our reality and deal with it in a

godly way, deal with deal with it with godly processes, godly

thoughts, and godly motives and intentions.

Now he lists drunkenness here as something to avoid because of

dissipation. But I think you could put any

number of things in the spot that fall in line with

dissipation, that fall in line with worthlessness.

And instead of filling our lives with the spirit like we're going

to talk about, we could fill any, any number of thing that

here will be a waste to us. And we talked about last time,

the doom scrolling, getting on our phones, our devices, they

say an average of 8-9 hours a day we might spend on devices.

Anything you could put in this spot that would be dissipation,

a waste of what God has given us would also fit.

But drunkenness definitely has a lot of consequences with it,

between the sexual immorality, the bad decisions, the inhibited

decision making that's that happens when we drink or when

when drinking happens. It's all a waste.

And so instead, he says instead we should be filled with the

spirit. And I guess one last thought on

this. We need to all be aware of what

our personal escape is. Some people might be drinking,

and some people that might be any number of things that might

seem less and less detrimental to health.

But remember, our spiritual perspective is different than

just avoiding what might hurt us so bad.

We have to remember there are time has value.

And so an escape from reality could be any number of things.

Any number of things that waste our time.

Video games, relationships, you you can insert anything, you

know your own thing. I know my own things that get in

the way of what I need to be doing in my life.

It doesn't mean kicking back and and watching some TV might not

always be a bad thing, but it can be escape that prevents us

from doing this important step in our Christian life, being

filled with the spirit that is the alternative.

God doesn't just leave us with an empty OK, you don't do this,

but just stop, he says. Don't do this.

Instead, fill it with something good.

Fill it with the spirit. What does that mean?

We're going to talk about that a little bit.

But if your life has challenges, this should be your response.

If your life has challenges filled with the Spirit, if your

life has pains, filled with the Spirit.

If your life has monotony, fill it with the Spirit.

Don't you want joy to pervade your life?

Don't you want to live a life of passion?

People seek for passion and joy and meaning in so many areas of

life, and there's nothing wrong with having a job you love, that

you're passionate about and that you were looking forward to

every day when you go to work. But I think a lot of people are

really upset or striving to find that because they have to find

it there. We find our key core meaning in

life and our passion in the work that we do for Christ, and we're

meant to do that. There is meant to be a longing

there. May we fill it with a thing that

is supposed to fill that gap in our lives and it's being filled

with the spirit and all the things that that means and all

the ways that that manifest itself in our lives.

His hope, his reality, his way and his attitudes.

So what does it mean to have a spirit filled life?

Verse 19 goes on to say speaking to one another in songs and

hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in

your heart to the Lord, That's the first thing he's going to

tell us in line with living with a spirit filled life is to first

of all talk to one another In this sometimes we think of our

you know, people say I can have a relationship, just me and God.

I don't need anybody else. But the first command is to

teach and talk to one another. When we come to worship, when we

sing together, when we praise God together, we are talking to

God and to one another. If I tell you, and if I teach to

you, and if I sing to you or you to me, in God's words and psalms

and hymns, I am affirming my my commitment.

I'm affirming my convictions in my faith.

That is a core step in building a strong faith, is affirming

your own faith to others. But at the same time, other

people are built up. God's ways are great.

It's sometimes hard to get yourself to come to church maybe

and you have other things going on but you benefit others and

they get benefit from you and and you or yourself are

benefited from this process of teaching one another and and

these things he goes on to say in psalms and hymns and

spiritual songs. I've read people try to

distinguish what's what specifically and you may be able

to do that. I don't have a super clear

understanding of what maybe a Psalm would be versus a hymn and

a song. I think the key here is the

diversity. May we in our songs not be

afraid of diversity and different types of songs in

different occasions, in sadness, that we could sing out a song of

of praise to God in mourning. That I, the one I think of right

now is in these blue binders of in times of distress and sorrow.

Lord, I come to you, 'cause there's nowhere else to go.

Basically, that song that was written by the woman who had

cancer and she was praising to God through it all.

There's a time for that. There's a time for just saying

great are you Lord? And singing to him like we have

in that song and the old hymns we might think of the

traditional songs that we sing. Stand up for Jesus this morning.

There's a place for all of our different song styles and

meanings within the song and motivations in the heart for the

from the songs. Maybe we be not be afraid of

that, and to teach one another and to be willing to sing a song

someone else might enjoy even if we don't like it.

Maybe maybe we sing it to one another with the attitude in the

heart, because ultimately, he says we are making melody in our

hearts to the Lord. It doesn't say that you make a

melody in your vocal cords, because there are many people,

many Christians, who can never praise God and can never teach

one another. If that's the case, because some

people just can't find the melody and that's OK, that's not

what matters here. What matters is the melodies in

the heart and melody is what we are processing in our minds and

devoting our heart to and focusing on.

That's what matters. Yes, practice the song so that

they're easy to listen to and so that we can create a wonderful

noise together. But God cares about the heart

and God. Someone in this audience today

could be singing the most beautiful melody and not praise

God or lick. And someone in this audience

could not be singing any melody whatsoever.

They're just saying the words and they cannot find them a note

and they could praise God more than anyone else in the room.

Our God is awesome that you can start on day one as being a

Christian with no musical knowledge and you can praise him

and teach other people around you with your words.

The second thing he says or an extension of living a spirit

filled life. He says, verse 20, giving thanks

always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord

Jesus Christ. Why is it important that we use

our time wisely? Because we've got a lot of

thanks. To give always is a lot, and for

all things is a lot of things. There's a lot to cover in our

daily thankfulness, in our daily remembrance, in our marination

of the mind. We have a lot to be thankful

for. We don't have time to waste, to

throw away, to be dissipated. We've got so much good that can

be done. Verse 21 submitting to one

another in the fear of God. So this isn't necessarily a

transition in thought, but he's kind of opening up a new can of

worms, you might say. And the first thing he says is

submitting to one another. He's going to call us to have a

certain set of of submission and and roles that we have in our

lives and our relationships. But there is first an ultimate

call for all Christians to submit to one another in the

proper way. What is submission?

Submission is basically a an unselfless attitude that says

I'm going to put aside what I think or what I want or my own

selfish desires, you might say for the betterment of this

relationship, for the betterment of this context, this

circumstance, out of love. Now, doing that, why do that?

Is it because other people are more valuable than you?

Is it because you are always wrong and you just need to

submit to others? No, that's not what he's saying.

It's a disposition of the mind. It's a meekness like Frank has

been teaching about from the Sermon on the Mount.

It's a place that we get to in our minds that says I'm going to

hold fast on what's true and right, but I'm not going to act

like my way or the highway all the time.

I'm not going to act like I'm above everybody else.

I'm going to be willing to say, OK, let's do it your way.

Let me help you with that. Let's do it your way and let me

join with you in this effort. Not fine if if if you're not

doing my way, I'm not, I'm staying out of this, that's not

my thing. Submitting to one another says I

will serve alongside you and with you in the fear of God.

So first of all, like we said, Christian submission is not a

reflection of innate value. If you submit yourself to

someone else, if I submit myself to spiritual leadership in this

congregation, I'm not saying I'm less valuable of a person and

you are more valuable. That's not what this is saying.

God has given us a system of leadership and headship in

different contexts that is supposed to promote healthy

function. We're going to get into that.

So it doesn't. It's not innate value.

It's not saying you're worthless or worthless.

It's not saying you're necessarily correct or not

correct. And it's not saying you are

unimportant to a 'cause if you submit within a structure.

And the most obvious thing we could think of is a business.

If you have ACEO or an upper level management and you say

that person has value to a company.

Any good CEO will say, say the person at the bottom floor of

that company has just as much value to the company as they do

because everyone is holding up an organization.

If if ACEO is great but the floor level workers, we all know

companies that have terrible floor level workers and it

doesn't look good and maybe the bottom line is good, but it's

not a good business. People don't like that business

when they're when they're members at the bottom, are not

kind, loving or supportive or whatever good things.

So your importance to A cause is not any less because you submit

to someone else's leadership or authority.

Those are all the knots with Christian submission.

And it's important to remember what the the biblical headship

is. We learn in this context and

many others, we learn that God the Father is the head of

Christ. The head of man is Christ.

Let me let me say it this way. The head of woman is man.

The head of man is Christ. The head of Christ is God the

Father. We learn that in other passages.

So this is an established authority structure.

Now, does that mean that Christ is any less valuable than God

the Father? Absolutely not.

Now, does it mean that Christ is any less important than God the

Father? Well, we learned that Christ

submitted himself. He chose to willingly submit to

God the Father. So we don't look at this

relationship of submission and Christ submission to the Father

with any kind of negative connotation at all whatsoever.

It is the most pure, admirable and sign of strength that we can

imagine, right? So as we go into in just a

minute, submission from the woman to the man, or submission

from a worker to his master, or submission any other way, we

have to remember first that Christ is submitted to God the

Father, and that is not a negative thing in any way.

OK, so Christian submission, first of all, like we said, is a

demonstration and an internalization of a fear of

God. That's what this verse started

by saying, submitting to one another in the fear of God.

That's the first thing he mentions here.

That is the most important that we would show a fear of God and

embody and accept for ourselves a fear of God.

A practical fear of God. It's one thing to say I believe

God is great and powerful and more than me.

It's another thing to practically embody that and

accept that. And Christian submission

demonstrates that. And it takes practice.

Submission is hard. Some people have difficulty

submitting to authority, whether it's a teacher or a policeman or

a government. But it takes practice in a

relationship. There's all kinds of context.

And it takes practice #2. Christian submission establishes

a proper perspective on self. So it's a proper perspective on

God and fear of God, but it's also establishing a proper

perspective on self. James 4 verse 10 says humble

James 4:10

yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.

Thirdly, it utilizes the power of our influence.

By showing submission, we are able to influence others in ways

that we could never in any other way do.

So in first Peter 4, verse three through three.

First Peter 3, verse three, he's talking the context of the

marriage relationship in which an A believing wife is trying to

have an influence on her husband.

But this concept is true universally.

OK, let's read it. It says wives.

Likewise, be submissive to your own husband's.

That even if some do not obey the word, the word of God, they,

without a word, without even saying anything, may be won by

the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct

accompanied by fear. So this is the context about

having an influence on somebody's heart by softening

them and showing them how good this can be in a relationship

that will have an effect on them that softens and changes their

heart. That's true in the marriage, but

that is absolutely true in all of our other relationships.

If I am in the interaction at work with somebody and where it

may be starting to come to a place of at odds where I might

have a reason to lash out or respond in a harsh way, whatever

you might think. But I I show submission and

kindness. That's going to give them the

double take effect, right? Where?

Well, what'd you just say? I was expecting kind of the

opposite. I was expecting a lash out and

you didn't give it. That is an opportunity to

penetrate the hearts of people that we never could have an

effect on any other way, especially people that might

seem the hardest. Works can go a long way and

softening people's hearts. So Christian submission utilizes

the power of our influence and we have to be prepared to accept

disrespect because like we already established, it's about

God fearing God and it's not about us.

The proper perspective oneself on my I go back to my students

because my students are always saying stuff like like me

personally, I want to take that and they always they want to.

It's like they want Peacock, like they're powerful.

By standing up to somebody and telling them off like that does

no good for anyone in any circumstance and it gets a huge

fight outside. It doesn't do any good for

anybody. We have to be willing to accept

disrespect because who cares? Who cares if somebody said

something to me or acted 2 way toward me that was

disrespectful. Guess who looks bad?

Them. The only way you look bad is if

you respond in a bad way. Maybe be willing to accept

disrespect with a Christian submissive attitude.

First four, the fourth thing. It helps us find ways to make

relationships better. So in showing Christian

submission, maybe the most practical thing is we improve

relationships. Relationships strain when there

is an unwilling there's there's not a willingness to bend OR

yield or compromise. It is unavoidable in any

relationship where you're with someone for any amount of time

that you are going to just not run into some kind of conflict.

It helps make our relationships better, Psalm 133 said.

Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell

together in unity. So it takes submission to make

that happen. OK, Christian submission is

going to be, first of all, like he's mentioned to one another.

It's a general command. Then he's going to get into

slave to master, Christian to civil government, Christian to

spiritual government, and wife to husband.

And we're getting into the first verse of that discussion.

Verse 22 says, wives submit to your own husbands as to the

Lord. First of all, this is a command

to wives. This verse does not say

husbands. Your wives are to respect you.

That's not what this says. This says wives.

He's not talking to any man in the room.

He's not talking to the husband, he's talking to wives.

Wives are the command here and it is not the job of the husband

to make them submit. Just as it is equally counter

biblical for a woman to not submit to her husband in the

Lord, it is just as counter biblical for a husband to make

his wife submit to him. Because that's not submission,

that is force. That's how you get some very

ugly and oppressive regimes and we've seen that in different

places in the world and different cultures that comes

out. It is not the job of the man to

make the wife submit and one might quickly say, well well

then what happens if the wife won't submit?

What's this husband supposed to do?

Nothing. You keep doing your job but it

is not your job. And it is true that if if the

wife will not show submission or the other side, if the husband

doesn't do his part, we're going to get to that in a minute.

You can't have a the relationship God designed.

You're right. Bummer.

It really stinks. It can be really good in

marriage. It can be really bad.

But the husband cannot try to overcompensate.

If the other side isn't is doing its part OK and and the wife is

not the problem. That's not what I'm saying.

What I'm getting at is watching out for that line of whose job

is who in this situation. So this is the wife's job and it

says submit to your own husbands.

So this isn't a general command. Hey men, women.

No, this is a command in the home where all of our world

starts. It starts in the home.

It's to your own husbands. So one husband to one woman.

This is the discussion. Not every man around you, wives

submit to your own husbands as to the Lord.

OK, is he saying wives is basically your husband and the

Lord? Here they are.

You serve them both with equal with equal authority in your

life. That's not what he's saying

because nowhere in the Bible does man take the place of God

in telling you what you should do or your commands outside of

God's realm. Remember this headship is God

the Father, Christ, man woman in the sense that you cannot take

woman out from under the headship of Christ and ask her

to do something that God is not authorized or commanded that

would be going outside of her authority primarily to the Lord.

So what does this as to the Lord mean?

It's great. It is an attitude.

Just as when women decide to follow the Lord, they have a

willing submission to the Lord and love and service to God.

It's an attitude of how they submit to the Lord.

The wife should have the same attitude of love and willingness

in this. In this submission.

It's an attitude. It's a motive that the that the

woman is to have. Now I don't want to say a whole

lot about this. And Titus 2, verse three says

the older women, likewise the older women are going to be

given an instruction here to teach the younger women.

I don't want to have to try to say a lot because I'm not in

that position. I think this is primarily the

job of the older women to teach the younger women.

It goes on to say likewise, that they be reverent in behavior,

not slanders, not given too much wine, teachers of good things

that these older women that they admonish the young women to.

And he's going to give a list of things that the older women

should be teaching the younger women to love their husbands.

He has to tell them because it could be hard sometimes, because

the way we are to love their children, to be discreet, chaste

homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the

word of God may not be blasphemed.

So I encourage you, if you're a younger woman here, look to the

wonderful examples that are around you.

Seek out those examples because it is their job, more so to

teach than it is our job as men. So may the women who are older

be ready to give that help as it's given an opportunity.

Verse 23 for the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is

head of the church and he is the Savior of the body.

Now we as a marriage unit, any marriage units who are here have

a wonderful opportunity to show us a picture of something God

has intended from the foundation of the world to give us.

It's a picture of Christ in His church.

If you have no other motivation, no other strong desire to make

your marriage work, the greatest thing I think we can do is be

reflection of Christ and his church, and if nothing else will

motivate it. Maybe that will to get us to see

how great of an opportunity we have to reflect.

To our kids, to the people around us, to our community, to

the church, to anybody who sees us.

For husbands, the love that Christ has for His church and

for wives, the submission and love that she has to her husband

like the churches to submit to Christ.

There's a picture happening that may we never mess up, and we

will. But our goal should be to show

the world and show any way we can, that beautiful picture that

God has designed to make for us now.

Biblical headship. The world sometimes thinks of

headship like this fat, lazy man kicking back, ordering barking

orders to his wife. That is not the biblical pattern

of headship. In the biblical pattern,

headship is defined by love and all the things First Corinthians

13 says about love. Get ready.

If you're going to be a leader and a head, that takes a lot of

work. Love, accepting pain for the

betterment of others, You might say sacrifice.

That's what sacrifice is. Accepting pain for the

betterment of others, being long-suffering, taking criticism

in the face of adversity, and having understanding.

You think about Christ. The biblical headship is not

this. This is biblical headship.

This is biblical love and leadership.

May we view that and talk about it like it's not the bad thing

the world wants it to be. Verse 24.

Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the

wives be to their own husbands and everything.

Now, like we've already said, God has ultimate authority over

the wife. But this statement and

everything makes it clear that it's it's not like, OK, this you

have these certain areas that you have headship and these have

others. This is this is a general role

of headship. It's not split up as to who has

headship over what. This isn't everything.

First Peter, we already talked about that verse.

Verse 25 here goes to the husbands.

Husbands love your wives. And just like we read a list of

all the things, that means just as Christ also loved the church

and gave himself for her, that is not barking orders and

looking down on her. That is this.

This is the way that Christ loved the church.

He sacrificed everything. And it wasn't just a momentary,

you know, he got up all the courage to do it once he's he

showed this love to the church. And every day he went out into

the world and did his work and his mission and he preached the

word and he lived the word and he showed the word of God in his

actions. He was the word.

We as husbands are to love our wives like that, you know.

Well, that's that seems like a one thing is not like the other,

but it is. It is and it's not like, well,

what he died for. How can I die for my wife?

It's not like you have to do that.

It's that between nothing and dying for your wife, You do

everything in between. It's not only what Christ did,

it's from from Ground Zero to what he did.

You be ready to do anything and everything for her.

That is the spectrum that is the gambit that is required of of

husbands and showing love and leadership in his home and for

his wife. That is a big call to action.

We've already read a long list of things that it means to have

love and we have a task in front of us.

We could say this alone and we all know, OK, I got some work to

do because this is the example first.

Peter 3 verse seven says husbands likewise dwell with

them with understanding. Dwell with them has a

connotation of stay there, stay there and be with her and take

your time with understanding, as I understand this word.

With understanding. This phrase comes from the where

we get science or knowledge. May we learn and have

understanding and seek to know and seek to learn.

When we first start dating, it's it's automatic.

We know what to do. Instinctively.

I'm going to ask and find out what they like, what they don't

like and do exactly that. It's great of God to give us a

picture of what it looks like before it becomes harder, maybe

so we know what it looks like. May, I didn't mean to switch

that May. We seek to have understanding

and to learn throughout the years of our marriage.

We're in four years right now and I know we have a long way to

go for Taylor and I, and I have not seen all the things that you

have seen. I appreciate your example to the

couples who have been together for a long time and I encourage

you with these verses not because of anything I say,

because I'm just sharing the word with us.

May we have understanding and seek to understand in these

processes and in in these discussions in our daily lives

with our wife giving honor to the wife.

It goes on to say so that your prayers would not be hindered if

we do not show honor to our wives.

That's sin and that hinders prayer.

That's a big deal. It's not some small thing when

we decide to treat our wives with in another way, but maybe

we honour them as they deserve verse 26.

That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of

water by the word. That he might present her to

himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any

such thing, but that she should be blameless, should be holy and

without blemish. So this is discussion, Christ

with his church and the relationship, the connection

with the husband and the wife. And I don't.

I read a lot of commentary on this, and I'm not prepared to

give a strong statement as to what exactly I think all this

means. I'm not for sure.

But what I do know is this is all in the context of the

husband leading the home, the wife submitting that leadership,

and by God's word, leading their home, they should be purified at

the very minimum. That's what this means.

Now, there are other more specific things that people draw

that very well, very well may be true here.

But God's word and God's way should purify and give us a

wonderful home to live in and to participate in the pictures God

has intended without blemish. Verse 28 So husbands ought to

love their own wives as their own bodies.

He who loves his wife loves himself.

OK, so he's saying here as their own bodies.

We know that the husband and wife are to become one flesh.

When they are married, they come together.

This is a picture of unity. Husbands and wives need to be

unified and together and one and he's saying as their own bodies

because they we literally are supposed to be 1 and unified.

And it's funny. Here it's it's almost like I

read this through the lens of it, like dumb guy, like he who

loves his wife loves himself. Like, can you not at least do

this? Because if you haven't realized

it yet, it's it's good for her. It's good for you.

That's like the bare minimum. You take care of yourself.

You right, you take care of yourself.

He's going to say you should love your wives because it even

benefits you. Verse 29.

For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and

cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.

So if we can't seem to get over the fact, or we can't seem to

get ourselves to show love the way we should, maybe we should

just realize, hey man, this is good for you too, because you

are supposed to be 1 and unified as a couple, the writer says,

just as the Lord does the Church verse 34.

We are members of his body, of His flesh and of his bones.

Are we glad for Jesus, taking us into His body and accepting us

as His flesh and his bones? If we are, may we show that same

love to the wife because we are members together, flesh and

bone. And if we enjoy the benefits of

being Christ, we should make it better for our wives and make it

as good as possible, because we are members together in that one

body relationship. Verse 34.

For this reason, he goes on to say, a man shall leave his

father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall

become one flesh. This is a great mystery, he

says. But I speak concerning Christ

and the church. There's a lot to this.

There are so many depths of this relationship and wonderful and

connection and beautiful betterment.

There are so many wonderful things about this relationship,

he says. But he's talking about Christ in

the church. That's where the meaning here

is. And if wives are doing the the

leaving of their own home, the security of their own home, may

we provide that as husbands to them to provide that same

security, the same strength that they drew from their own home,

if they had that there. Verse 33.

Nevertheless, let each one of you in particular so love his

own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her

husband. Kind of The last comments I'll

make about this is it seems like in a relationship the first

thing to go when there's a disagreement and the the issue

both sides have is the husband feels like he's not respected

and the wife feels like she's not loved.

Our God is so great that just with a few words he kind of keys

on the key IDs, the key ideas we need to love our wives just like

we would for our self, and let the wife see what she respects

her husband. This is really what I think what

the core needs that we both have, and God knows that and he

designed that. We thank you for listening to

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