Good morning!
Welcome to your morning coffee! May our Heavenly Father remind us of the need to submit to him in all things, but especially in our relationships with one another. Father, loving each other can be so hard sometimes. Our pride gets in the way, making a mess of our best intentions. It is hard to ask for forgiveness and to forgive. Father we need your help. Please give us what we need to obey you in how we love each other. Whether in marriage, in family, in friends, in relationships of every kind, help us to submit our will and pride to you. Father, in your son Jesus's name and by the power of the Spirit making us more like him, help us to submit our whole selves to you in how we love each other.
Your Morning Song: "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" by Chris Rice
Your Monday Morning Sermon Recap: Ephesians 5:22-33 (v.22, 25)
22 Wives, submit yourselves
to your own husbands
as you do to the Lord.
25 Husbands, love your wives,
just as Christ loved the church
and gave himself up for her
...
Let's take just a few pieces of the selected verses, 22-33. As with Sunday's sermon, I believe that these pieces are foundational to understanding the rest of the section. Just two pieces. What is meant by submit? And what is meant by love? What are husbands and wives being asked to do by Paul and the Spirit?
What does Paul and the Spirit mean when they tell wives to submit? Lost in the English translation, the word in Greek carries some additional weight to it. Submit here is a military term, to submit willingly to a higher authority. But not only to submit, but to support. And there the nuance gains some real, practical traction. Wives, submit and support your husband. He cannot do this without you. As we will see in a moment, he has been called to a powerful, mighty position of authority. And he cannot do it without you. Just as Eve was Adam's help in battle, his source of strength, so too are all wives to be to their husbands. Of equal and eternal value. But of different calling and command.
A helpful way to begin addressing what husbands are to do, is to ask, "What, exactly, are wives submitting to?" First off, by submitting/supporting their husband, wives are ultimately submitting to and supporting Christ and his work in their marriage. And Christ's work in the marriage will be expressed to her in God's command to husbands, "...love your wives." The Greek here is a word we should all be familiar with. Agape. Unconditional. Sacrificial. Ultimate. The truest of all loves.
Husbands. What is your wife supposed to submit to? Do you agape love her like Jesus loves the church? Are you willing to die for her? Not just once, jumping in front of a bullet or a bus, but daily? Or perhaps nightly if you don't like watching the same thing on TV?
Husbands. To agape love your wife is to accept Christ's call to you to have authority over her. She submits to you. And you wield your authority over her like Jesus wielded his authority. He washed feet. He cared about more than a roof and dinner on the table. He cared for the inner person. He dressed himself as a slave and did what was very, very beneath him. He went to the greatest of all lengths to love the church. Agape.
Husband. Do you agape your wife? Are you willing to dress your heart like a slave and wash her feet? Do you think that sort of thing is beneath you or too uncomfortable to do? You are no greater than your master. Agape your wife. There is no other way to be married that pleases God.
Wives, submit to Jesus through submitting to and supporting your husband in all things. Husbands, be willing to give all things up for and to your wives, as Jesus did for the church. Both husband and wife cannot experience the delight-full, joy-full marriage unless they are both submitting to Jesus.
And in this, even those who are not married can see a principle of how to do relationships that is true in all circumstances.
Let your love for others be founded and grounded in your submission to Jesus the way he has called us to be and live.
Agape.
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