Paul Parallels Marriage with Christ and His Church:
Part 2 Exhortation to the Husbands
Ephesians
5:25-27 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and
gave Himself for it; That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of
water by the Word, That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not
having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and
without blemish. KJVIf Christian women thought Paul was requiring of them something that seemed to be impossible, impractical, and inconceivable (even during his day) and especially in this “so-called” modern culture today, then Paul immediately gives the qualifier for all Christian women and that is “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it;” (Ephesians 5:25). A wife who has a husband that loves our Lord Jesus Christ and aims and purposes his life dedicated to loving his wife as our Lord Jesus Christ loves him, then that wife would be so willing to submit to that type of love, that submission would not be a drudgery or demeaning, and certainly not degrading, but it would be thrilling for her to receive such love on a daily basis that she could do nothing but return said love in kind to him. Paul declares to these Ephesian believers and to all believing husbands today “in Christ” the much harder and more difficult of his exhortations, because no Christian man has within himself the ability to love his wife as Christ loves His Bride the Church. Only when the husband partners with God the Holy Spirit can this ever be achieved and carried out in his home, therefore, this requires the husband’s submission to God the Holy Spirit before his wife ever submits to him.
The affection the husband has for his wife is to be supreme, superior, and sovereign over and above all of his other relationships to the degree our Heavenly Father gave us when He spoke these words early on after He created man and woman, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.” (Genesis 2:24). Note: Here is what Matthew Henry said of this parallel or comparison of Christ Love for His Church and a man’s love for his wife, “The love of Christ to the Church is proposed as an example of this, which love of His is a sincere, a pure, an ardent, and constant affection, and that notwithstanding the imperfections and failures that she is guilty of. The greatness of His love to the Church appeared in His Giving Himself unto the death for it. Observe, As the Church’s subjection to Christ is proposed as an exemplar to wives, so the love of Christ to His Church is proposed as a pattern to husbands; and while such exemplars are offered to both, and so much is required of each, neither has reason to complain of the divine injunctions. The love which God requires from the husband in behalf of his wife will make amends for the subjection which He demands from her to her husband; and the prescribed subjection of the wife will be an abundant return for that love of the husband which God has made her due.”
Our Lord Jesus Christ is never not caring for and concerned with and considering all that He can do for the betterment of His Bride the Church and so must a Christian husband have a solicitude (a feeling of excessive concern) for his wife the “bone of his bone” and the “flesh of his flesh” (Genesis 2:23) as the first man Adam declared when he first saw Eve. Christ Jesus our Lord willingly gave Himself up for His Bride the Church as a sacrifice unto God the Father and so is the exhortation or command to Christian husbands to so love their wives as to give themselves over and up to them as a sacrifice unto to her surrendering on many and most occasions their wants to please their wives in every way or manner, not merely sexually (although that must be a top priority) always rendering to her the sexual pleasing and pleasure she is due as his only lover, but he must listen to his wife and learn her deepest needs and desires while at the very same time covering her sins and faults as love covers a multitude of sins (Proverbs 10:12 & James 5:20). Paul declares that Christ Jesus our Lord is determined “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,” (Ephesians 5:26) and it is certain that He will accomplish this task. In Paul’s parallel of Christ to His Church and the Christian husband to his wife, he wants these Ephesian believers and the Christian husbands today to recognize and understand that it is their top priority (exactly as our Lord Jesus’ priority) to be a sanctifying and cleansing influence spiritually upon their wives as our Lord Jesus is with His Church.
The Christian husband should be the Priest or Pastor of his home lovingly leading his wife according to the Word of God. Therefore, the husband cannot afford to be ignorant of the Word of God or ignore the precepts in the Word of God, but he must constantly allow the Word of God to convict him, cover him, and cause him to walk and live by its direction, then he will be able to have his own weaknesses cleansed and in turn help his wife be cleansed of her weaknesses by the spiritual bathing of the Word of God upon their souls. This is exactly what our Lord, Master, and Savior Jesus Christ does every moment with His Church collectively as a Body and individually as members of His Body as He prayed to God the Father with these words, “Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.” (John 17:17). When the Christian husband says, “I do”, he is saying “I do pledge my love so to you unconditionally as to always do everything within my power to draw love from you to me by virtue of my actions to you.” Just as the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses His Bride the Church from ALL sin (1 John 1:7), so must the love of the Christian husband to his wife have a cleansing efficacy, that is, the capacity or power to produce the desired effect upon the faults of his wife.
Christ will present to God the Father and to Himself a Bride completely clean spiritually as Paul declares with these words, “That He might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” (Ephesians 5:27). The old nature still present and prevalent within the heart and soul of every member of Christ’ Body His Bride the Church is what He is cleansing and sanctifying by the washing spiritually in His Word in order to crucify that old flesh progressively more and more until He takes His Bride to Himself and then completely glorifies her. Note: “The Church in general, and particular believers, will not be without spot or wrinkle till they come to Glory. From this and the former verse together we may take notice that the glorifying of the Church is intended in the sanctifying of it: and that those, and those only, who are sanctified now, will be glorified hereafter.” (Matthew Henry). We know that none in our Lord Jesus’ Church will be completely spotless and having no blemishes, but what each of us will witness is the decaying, dying, and deteriorating of our outer man (the tent, the house, the earthly bodies we reside in now) at the very same time having our inner man and inner woman being renewed day by day by that washing of water by the Word of God (2 Corinthians 4:16) that we will at last be presented to our Heavenly Husband Christ Jesus holy and blameless, and above reproach in His sight (Colossians 1:22).
“What a lofty ideal of wedded love is here! Chrysostom says: ‘Wouldest thou that thy wife obey thee as the Church doth Christ? Have care for her, then, as Christ for the Church.’ Our earthly relationships are similitudes and emblems of sacred realities, and the more we can import into the time sphere the inspiration and virtue of the eternal, the more transcendental and beautiful will they become. The Lord has taught us the utter renunciation of love. Men of the world reckon how much love they can get; the children of eternity how much they can give; but such giving always means getting back with compound interest.” F. B. Meyer”
“‘Love your wives, even as the Christ loved the Church.’ What a glory this confers upon the husband’s part in marriage! His devotion pictures as no other love can, the devotion of Christ to His Redeemed people. His love must therefore be a spiritual passion, the love of soul to soul, that partakes of God and of eternity. Of the three Greek words for love, eros, familiar in Greek poetry and mythology, denoting the flame of sexual passion, is not named in the New Testament; philia, the love of friendship, is tolerably frequent, in its verb at least; but agape absorbs the former and transcends both. This exquisite word denotes love in its spiritual purity and depth, the love of God and of Christ, and of souls to each other in God. This is the specific Christian affection. It is the attribute of God who ‘loved the world and gave His Son the Only-begotten’ of ‘the Christ’ who ‘loved the Church and gave up Himself for her.’ Self-devotion, not self-satisfaction, is its note. Its strength and authority it uses as material for sacrifice and instruments of service, not as prerogatives of pride or titles to enjoyment. Let this mind be in you, O husband, toward your wife, which was also in Christ Jesus, who was meek and lowly in heart, counting it His honor to serve and His reward to save and bless.” Expositor’s Bible Commentary
If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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