Ephesians 5:22-32 Amplified Bible

Marriage Like Christ and the Church

²² Wives, be subject ^[a]to your own husbands, as [a service] to the Lord. ²³ For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church, Himself being the Savior of the body. ²⁴ But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything [respecting both their position as protector and their responsibility to God as head of the house].

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives [seek the highest good for her and surround her with a caring, unselfish love], just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, ²⁶ so that He might sanctify the church, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word [of God], ²⁷ so that [in turn] He might present the church to Himself in glorious splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy [set apart for God] and blameless. ²⁸  Even so husbands should and are morally obligated to love their own wives as [being in a sense] their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hated his own body, but [instead] he nourishes and protects and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, ³⁰ because we are members (parts) of His body. ³¹ For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined [and be faithfully devoted] to his wife, and the two shall become ^[b]one flesh. ³² This mystery [of two becoming one] is great; but I am speaking with reference to [the relationship of] Christ and the church.

The Word of God for the Children of God.

Adeste Fidelis Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

My Reflections on Saint Valentine’s Day

You are all probably acutely aware of all the pink and red an whites decorating many of our stores in the month of February.

I have been thinking a lot about what it represents, and what we can learn.

It occurred to me that many of us Christians will preach lovely messages on Thanksgiving, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Easter, and even Christmas.

Yet, I find when it come to Valentine’s Day, we usually pass that one over.

I had to ask myself the question, “why?”

I can’t speak for others, but I think the answer for myself is that this seems too worldly to merit preaching a message related to it.

But is God completely silent on the themes this day brings to us?

You can’t avoid it.

The commercials, the decorations in the stores, the parties in school, the gifts at the office, and many other things confront us all whether we like it or not.

We are talking about romantic love.

Why do we Christians avoid that topic so much at church and in religious settings?

Is it completely worldly?

Is it ungodly?

Does the Bible condemn it?

Maybe the Bible ignores it?

I think what we will find it that it is far from worldly.

In fact, it is a reflection of our God.

1. Love divine, all loves excelling,
joy of heaven, to earth come down;
fix in us thy humble dwelling;
all thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus thou art all compassion,
pure, unbounded love thou art;
visit us with thy salvation;
enter every trembling heart. [Charles Wesley, 1707-1788]

My Reflections on the Sure Love of God

God is love.

When I say love, I am not talking about the little miniature fat guy Cupid that goes around shooting people with arrows.

That is almost too cute for my taste.

In fact, it can make romantic love seem almost silly or frivolous.

What I am talking about is the special love a man and a woman have for each other.

The love a man and woman have for each other is part of God’s design from the very beginning when he saw that it was not good for man to be alone.

If you never read the Song of Solomon, which is really titled the “Song of Songs” in the first chapter, which means “The Best of Songs,” then you are definitely and decisively missing out on the best love poetry ever written.

Key Words throughout the Book are: “Love” and “Marriage.”

The Song of Solomon beautifully portrays the qualities of a pure “love” and the ingredients for a “successful marriage.”

To develop this kind of a relationship requires total honesty, unselfishness and unconditional an unconventional support.

The whole book is a love poem between a betrothed couple, who later appear to have gotten married.

It is romantic, sensual and is part of the word of God.

The couple refers to each other as the “one whom my soul loves.”

It speaks of being faint with love.

It describes the admiration for and the delight they have in each other.

In poetically describes the precious beauty that they see in each other.

Some people have had a real problem with taking this book literally, as if romantic love poetry is not worthy of scripture.

As a result, they interpret it as an allegory of God’s love for his bride Israel or as an allegory of Christ’s love for the church.

But that doesn’t eliminate the fact that it is still romantic love poetry.

If it were merely figurative of God’s love for us, the conclusion is still the same.

Romantic love is not worldly but comes from God. In fact, if it were figurative, then the case is even stronger that romantic love is godly, good, and beautiful.

It is a reflection of the love that God has for us.

Imagine that!

God describing is love for his people in romantic love poetry!

However, I think we should take it as what it is. It is simply beautiful and romantic love poetry.

Romantic love does not originate from the world.

It comes from the God of love.

In fact, all throughout the Bible, God presents himself as the greatest lover of all.

God fondly recalls the early days of his marriage to his bride, Israel.

Look at this passage of scripture:

“Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares the Lord GOD.

Then I bathed you with water, washed off your blood from you, anointed you with oil. I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk.

I adorned you with ornaments, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. I also put a ring in your nostril, earrings in your ears and a beautiful crown on your head. Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your dress was of fine linen, silk and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. Then your fame went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My splendor which I bestowed on you,” declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 16:8-14)

God loves his bride passionately.

He showered all of the symbols of his love on her.

Nothing was too good for her.

God is the lover of lovers.

When God loves, He loves very passionately, and with passionate love can come intense anger and fury, jealousy and pain when the one whom your soul loves is unfaithful to you. 

Notice what happens next in this passage:

“But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your fame, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen. You also took your beautiful jewels {made} of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them…” (Ezekiel 16:15-17).

And God continues for many more verses describing how his perfect bride was unfaithful to him using the very jewels, clothes, other things God gave to her.

It was as if his “perfect bride committed adultery in their own bed! After going into more details about how he beloved was unfaithful to him, He concludes:

“Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will tear down your shrines, demolish your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your jewels, and will leave you naked and bare. They will incite a crowd against you and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will stop you from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer pay your lovers” (Ezekiel 16:38-41).

Do you think God is angry?

Of course!

Wouldn’t you be angry and hurt if the one your soul loves cheated on you?

In fact, many of us would divorce our spouse in a heartbeat.

But God does no such thing.

In his passionate, relentless, undying love, God does not close the book on his beloved bride.

His love never dies.

Notice:

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her (or “woo” her), Bring her into the wilderness And speak kindly to her. Then I will give her her vineyards from there, And the valley of Achor as a door of hope. And she will sing there as in the days of her youth, As in the day when she came up from the land of Egypt. It will come about in that day,” declares the LORD, “That you will call Me Ishi And will no longer call Me Baali” (Hosea 2:14-16).

Maybe some of the flavor of this is lost in translation.

God woos his bride back to him after a period of anger and wrath.

He puts a song in her heart again.

In that day, she will no longer call him “Ba-ali,” which translated means “my Lord.”

No longer will God be “my Lord,” but “Ishi,” which means “my husband.”

Do you see the kind of love that God has for his bride?

In fact, one of the final pictures we have in scripture of the consummation of God’s plan is that of a marriage feast.

In Revelation 19:7-9, God uses the image of a wedding to describe the time when his heart’s desire will be fulfilled.

We, God’s people, are the bride, and he is eagerly anticipating that wedding day when we will be together forever.

“Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he said to me, Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ And he said to me, ‘These are true words of God'” (Revelation 19:7-9).

In the next scene is the arrival of the groom.

But it is unlike anything you have ever seen.

Notice:

“And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS” (Revelation 19:11-16).

The groom comes riding in on a white horse.

His robe is dipped in blood, his own blood.

Jesus died and was willing to go to Hades and back for his bride.

Even though she has been unfaithful, he will come riding in, swoop her up on his steed and ride off into Heaven with her arms around his waist.

Yes, Jesus loves his bride with an undying love.

You know, love does strange things.

It makes people look past the warts and the rough edges.

Sometimes people will say, “I just don’t understand what he sees in her!”

Maybe she is a “Plain Jane” with several flaws.

Maybe she is overweight.

Maybe her hair is stringy.

Maybe her clothes are out of style.

Maybe she is mismatched.

Maybe her nose is too big.

Maybe she is nothing to look at.

Maybe she is a mess.

But to her man she is the most beautiful thing in the world.

Love causes him to look past those things to see who she really is.

Isn’t that what God does?

He looks past all of our rough edges, all of our filth, all of the ugliness in us.

He sees what we can truly become.

They say that “true love is blind.”

I disagree with this.

Oh, I know that there can be the star struck person who is no longer capable of thinking with good judgment, but that is not what I am talking about.

I am talking about true love.

True love is not unaware of the flaws, the warts, and the dirt.

Instead, true love looks beyond these things. 

Now, please turn in your bibles to our devotional text from Ephesians 5:22-32.

Ephesians 5:22-33The Message

^22-24 Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands.

^25-28 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church—a love marked by giving, not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor—since they’re already “one” in marriage.

^29-33 No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church, since we are part of his body. And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become “one flesh.” This is a huge mystery, and I don’t pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.

A Beautiful Bride ….

In many weddings, the moment a bride begins her walk down the aisle is very important.

Everyone stands to join the groom in watching her as she processes to meet him.

That moment is important for the groom too, of course.

He loves his bride and longs to have her with him.

Her walk down the aisle is a picture of the approach that began before they met.

And their meeting at the end of the aisle symbolizes the beginning of their new life together, which they pledge before God to continue throughout their lives.

Jesus loves his bride too.

Our text makes that clear even as it calls earthly husbands to give themselves up in loving service to their wives.

After all, for all to see, Jesus gave himself up for his bride, the church, at the cross at Calvary.

Christians are not frigid prudes that do not know what love is.

Christians are passionate people full of life that comes from the giver of life.

Remember this, the next time your anniversary comes up, or the next time your beloved’s birthday comes, or any time when you are driving on your way home.

We serve a God who is full of passionate love, and nothing is godlier when you display the same passionate love of God toward the one whom your soul loves.

Rejoice! Together we are the one for whom Christ waits at the end of the aisle.

The toughest love

Valentine’s Day, also known as the “day of love”, is one of the most widely celebrated holidays.

It’s the day when we’re supposed to tell those near and dear to us how much we cherish them.

Because everyone needs to feel loved.

Love is powerful.

So powerful, Jesus summarized the greatest Commandments using only love:

Mark 12:28-34Amplified Bible

²⁸ Then one of the scribes [an expert in Mosaic Law] came up and listened to them arguing [with one another], and noticing that Jesus answered them well, asked Him, “Which commandment is first and most important of all?” ²⁹ Jesus answered, “The first and most important one is: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord; ³⁰ and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul (life), and with all your mind (thought, understanding), and with all your strength.’ ³¹ This is the second: ‘You shall [unselfishly] ^[a]love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” ³²  The scribe said to Him, “Admirably answered, Teacher; You truthfully stated that He is One, and there is no other but Him; ³³ and to love Him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to [unselfishly] love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.” ³⁴ When Jesus saw that he answered thoughtfully and intelligently, He said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that, no one would dare to ask Him any more questions.

Now, when it comes to loving those closest to us, we should, of course, tell those people that we love them—and often.

However, in reality, doing so requires very little faith on our part because chances are our love will be returned to us in equal measure. (Luke 6:32–33)

Once we have experienced the true nature of God’s unending, unconditional love, the only reasonable response is to share that love with others who have not yet experienced it.

But this is where Jesus asks us to lean on our faith.

He gave another commandment that often seems quite illogical and at times, impossible.

“Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you (Luke 6:27).”

We are also called to love the unlovable.

This selfless love He’s describing can only be expressed with the supernatural help of the Holy Spirit.

When we put aside our emotions and trust the healing power of the Holy Spirit to help us and work through us for the benefit of those on the receiving end, we become a sure and certain eye witness of God’s transforming love and power.

Today,

“My beloved is mine and I am his; He pastures his flock among the lilies…..” Song of Solomon 2:16

In addition to telling your special someone how much they mean to you, maybe we should also reach out to those who wouldn’t normally come to mind on Valentine’s Day – Cherish Christ’s church, even when church is not so lovable.

You will be loving what Christ himself loves!

In the name of God, the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit,

Let us Pray,

A Valentine’s Day Prayer for True Love

Dear God, Help me today to understand what love really means.

I need a love that’s big enough to include all of us. Big enough for the dating and engaged couples, of course, with their giddy daydreams of a future together. But also big enough for the married folks, whether their passion for each other is still blazing brightly or barely more than a smoldering wick. Big enough for the singles toasting their independence, and for the singles wishing someone would come along and make that independence disappear. For the lonely and widowed and brokenhearted, I need a love that understands, a love that welcomes in hurt and sorrow instead of excluding them.

The love I need more than anything is Your love. Without Your love, no other love will ever be sufficient. And with it, every other love becomes richer and truer and more life-giving than it could have been otherwise. We have learned all our best loves from You: the love of faithful friends, of spouses and significant others, of parents and siblings and children. Love that commits. Love that sacrifices. Love that lays down its life. You authored each of these loves, taught us how to recognize them and long for them and give them away. Our best efforts at Valentine’s Day are just a fraction of the wholeness of love.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Today, let everything I see remind me of Your great love for all of God’s Children. Let today be a day for love. Real love. Big love. Your love.

Adeste Fidelis! Venite Adoremus! Dominum.

Gloria! In Excelsis Deo! Alleluia! Alleluia! Alleluia! Amen.

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