Off the Shelf Sunday School--Ephesians

Be Submissive and Serve with Love (5:21-33)

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.?

1.??????Paul says that Christians are to submit to each other motivated by love and to honor the example of Jesus who modelled (modeled) submission. Jesus submitted to the will of the Father in coming to earth and living a life that obeyed God’s commands. Then he offered himself as a sinless sacrifice on behalf of those who have faith in him to reconcile them to God. (Lk 22: 24-27; Php 2:5-8)

2.??????Christians must follow the example of their Lord Jesus. To submit means to voluntarily give something up for the benefit of someone else.?The three persons of the triune God are equal but they have different roles. This promotes unity and expresses love. Likewise, wives are to submit to their husbands out of respect for God who ordained that man should have this authority. Wives have a role like Jesus that is not inferior but that of a servant who promotes unity and love.

3.??????The body of Christ is the Church (born again believers). He is the head and commands the rest of the body. Husbands are to lead by serving and cherishing their wives. Husbands are commanded to follow the example of Jesus who cares for us and loves us.

4.??????Jesus is the provider for the redemption of his people called by grace and given faith. (Eph 2:8-10) Likewise, husbands are to provide for their wife. Part of the husband’s role is to provide the means for the wife to bear children so that they become one flesh. This is a picture of what Jesus has done for us in providing for resurrected bodies that are in his likeness. (1 Jn 3:1-2)

5.??????This view of marriage and the roles of husbands and wives is not popular today. Why is this??