1
Memorial Drive
3/20/16
LIVING OUT OUR GOD-DESIGNED ROLES:
Husbands Who Model Christ’s Headship
Ephesians 5:25-33
Review …
A wife’s desire will be for her husband but he would rule over her … Gen. 3:16
We would expect God to give further instruction on correcting the tendency to sin …
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.” (Eph. 5:25-30)
… A POWERFUL ANALOGY
Paul introduces “Christ and His Church” in vs. 23, 25, 27, and 29
Analogy - a comparisonof 2 things that is based upon their being alike in some way.”
HUSBANDS WHO MODEL CHRIST’S LEADERSHIP …
- Accept the Responsibility of Headship and Authority
“For the husband is the HEAD of the wife, as Christ also is the HEAD of the church …”
(Eph. 5:23a)
“How remarkable and revealing that secular culture recognizes the wisdom of authority, leadership, and defined roles in almost every other area of life – business, sports, entertainment, government, the military, and education – but balks at the notion that men and women should have different roles in marriage. In God’s economy and wisdom, all of life and society includes roles of leadership and subordination. This is His blessing because without it there would be utter chaos.” (Love That Lasts, Ricucci, 34)
“head” – Infrequently can mean “source of” … What determines its meaning here?
Christ is “head” of the Church which is “subject to” or “submitted to” Him …
To be “subject to” an authority makes sense while being “subject to” a source doesn’t!
“And He put all things IN SUBJECTION UNDER His feet … and gave Him as HEAD over all things to the church …” (Eph. 1:22) (“subjection” and “head” same as in marriage verses)
One response to the headship/authority is to rule over with harshness, insensitivity, or
self-centeredness. Another is to abdicate leadership altogether.
- Live Out Their Leadership Role As Those Compelled by Love
At first, love compelled our actions and behavior and frequently dictated our decisions and choices!
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her …”
(Eph. 5:25)
This is “agape” love, self-sacrificing and without strings attached …
- Greater love has no one than this … to lay down his life for his friends (Jn. 15:13)
- God shows His love us … while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Ro. 5:8)
- NOTHING will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ (R. 8:35ff)
- This “love” is the kind we find in I Corinthians 13, the Love Chapter
- Live Out Their Role of Leadership By Being Givers Rather Than Takers
“Husbands, love your wives, JUST AS Christ also loved the church AND GAVE HIMSELF UP for her …” (Eph. 5:25)
Paul has already shown us “gave Himself up for us” really looks like (Eph. 5:1-2)
“offering” – presenting oneself willingly
“sacrifice” – refers to being slaughtered or slain in behalf of another
THIS is Biblical headship and authority! THIS is Biblical husbandry! It doesn’t demand. Rather it willingly and sacrificially lays down its own life and interests for the sake of our wives.
Won’t a husband receive back? “He who loves his wife loves himself.” (Eph. 5:28)
- Live Out Their Leadership Role by Leading Their Wives To Spiritual Growth
“… Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word …” (Eph. 5:25b-26)
We can’t “die” for our wives in a way that can set them right before God. But we can
lead our wives in growing in our relationships with the Lord!
- Live Out Their Leadership Role by Helping Their Wives To Be All That They Can Be (i.e. They desire to encourage and develop the glory of their wives)
“… so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.” (Eph. 5:27)
“in splendor” means – glorious! Even gorgeous!
“When I’m with YOU I find that I am the best version of ME.”
“nourish” - To “bring up to maturity. To carefullytend to something in order to bring it to
its fullest potential!
cherish” – To warm or to brood over” something. Under the wings of our authority and care she becomes increasingly “gorgeous.” She becomes all God created her to be!
“Something of the selfless love, care, and sacrifice that Jesus shows toward the Church in supposed to be evident in you as you relate to your wife. Something of the respect, submission, and devotion that the Church shows toward Jesus is supposed to be evident in your wife as she relates to you. That’s the purpose for your marriage. That is why God has given her to you, and you to her.” (C.J. Mahaney, Sex, Romance, and the Glory of God, 25)