Marriage - To Serve And Protect Series

Marriage - To Serve and Protect

January 16, 2011

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 5:1-2, 15-33

Ephesians 5:1-2

Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. 2 And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 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. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 "Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband. ESV

Review – Ephesians 5:1-21

Christians are to live as Christ lived—mindful that God’s highest purpose for every human being ever born is to bear the glory of God’s image and likeness. That is God’s highest purpose for our lives and our physical bodies—the reason that Jesus appeared among us to redeem and restore all who hope in Him to their original purpose.

The final verse of our our Scripture reading last week (Ephesians 5:21) told us how disciples of Christ relate to each other physically.

Using someone’s body or allowing someone to use your body for temporary sexual satisfaction desecrates the image of God’s glory and purpose in both you and them.

We are to submit to the knowledge that every human being has been created NOT for our temporary use and satisfaction, but to bear the image and likeness of God, and therefore reverence and (if we are disciples of Christ) we respect not only our own bodies, but the bodies of others. Why? Let me say it again; out of reverence for Christ who died and now lived to redeem our bodies from the ravages of sin.

BIBLICAL TRUTHS ABOUT MARRIAGE

First, the Bible says that this “respect for Christ” also forms the basis for why spouses treat each other and their marriage with reverence and courtesy. Living in with the knowledge that your partner as been called to glorious work in Christ’s kingdom should make you want to serve and protect this vessel formed for God’s use.

No where does this idea that you are living with God’s property need to realized in actions than in dealing with some of the special stress that often comes with BLENDED FAMILIES—families where not all, or maybe not any of the children are biologically linked to one or the other parent. When you understand that you have now been put in a place to nurture, to serve and protect them for the same reason you are to serve and protect their parent (your new spouse), then you treat those children with the utmost respect and tenderness knowing that their highest purpose is to bear the image of Christ, and you are to help mold, shape and model that image in them and model it before them.

Second, the most powerful agent of change in marriage is pressure. That’s the way diamonds are formed. Something kind of carbon bsed material as come as coal deep in the earths crust remains fixed under extreme pressure and over time the transformation happens.