First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Lord’s Day March 16, 2003 Anno Domini

Ephesians 5:22-33

Marriage as God Designed It.

  I.  Submission and love in Ephesians 5.
      A.  Review: to submit, to submit yourself, to submit to the will of
God.
      B.  Submission in the marriage is balanced by love.
      C.  The Lord is equipping Christian married couples to live in the
world and yet not be of the world.
     

  II.  Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
      A.  The wife’s submission is a volutary yielding in love.
      B.  The wife’s submission is a recognition of the order God has
designed into marriage.
      C.  As the church submits to Christ  she looks to her head for his
loving rule, she lives by his principles, she experiences his presence and
love, she receives from him good gifts to encourage growth, she responds in
gratitude and praise.
        

Ephesians 1:22, Ephesians 2:20-21, Ephesians 3:17, Ephesians 3:19, Ephesians 4:7, 11, Ephesians 5:2, Ephesians 5:10, Ephesians 5:17, 19, 21.

   III. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church.
      A.  Love is the essential quality of Christian living.
        

Ephesians 1:4, Ephesians 2:4, Ephesians 3:17, Ephesians 3:19, Ephesians 4:2,

Ephesians 4:15-16, Ephesians 5:2.

      B.  Love is self-giving and views the wife’s good.
        

A specific application of the principle in Eph 5:2.

      C.  The goal of Christ’s love is to be modelled in the marriage.
        

Revelation 21:2, 9; Psalm 45:11, 13. Three that.. clauses Eph 5:26, 27.

  IV.  Living out the Lord’s design for marriage.
      A.  Haven’t we evolved socially beyond this model to egalitarian
marriage?
        

World: one + one = two. Christ: one + one = One.

      B.  We can anticipate some difficulties because we are not fully
sanctified.
      C.  Husbands are not always Christ-like.
      D.  Wives are not always submissive.
      E.  What if my husband is wrong and I know it?
      F.  What if my wife won’t submit?
      G.  Do I have to give in every time we have an argument?
        

Repent, Resolve, Renew. And to renew, fulfill Eph 5:33.

Pastor Christian Adjemian, Dipl.Div., Ph.D.

phone: 617.864.3185