M² Marriage
M² Marriage is a workgroup exploring a restored model of marriage centered on the teachings of Jesus... View more
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Husband’s Job: Ephesians 5:25-33
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Husband’s Job: Ephesians 5:25-33
Both the wife and the husband’s role in marriage is based on Christ’s relationship to the Church in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. In the case of husband’s Paul says:
[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. — Ephesians 5-25-33 WEB
The passage uses Christ as a type — an example that shapes the way of something — specifically how Jesus gives himself up for the church to sanctify her (v 25-27). Then an interpretation is given on what this means: that a husband should love his wife as he loves his own body (v 28-32).Again, Genesis 2 is the basis for this (v 32), possibly following Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 19:1-12. It follows that if the two are now one flesh, caring for her is in fact caring for his own flesh.
But this needs some work: a man loving his body explains the type of Christ loving the church — then what does a man loving his body mean? I don’t want a future husband loving my daughter the way many men “love” their bodies. It alternates between destructive indulgence and abuse. If Christ loved the Church that way, she would be anything but holy. Despite the text (v 29), men hating their own flesh through low self-image is now common as is the hatred of neglect. While we could say “no wise man hates his own flesh”, we do not live where this wisdom is widespread.
We have to start then with how Jesus sanctifies the Church, then we can maybe understand both how a man should loves his body and his wife in the same way.
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2 Replies
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Hebrews 10 describes the sanctifying work of Jesus in the same terms, but adds in the theme of temple sacrifice, referencing how Christ completes and surpasses a system that did not make people holy (v 11).
First, our sanctification comes not from the destruction or cost of the sacrifice, but the submission of human will:
[5] Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body have you prepared for me;
[6] in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
[7] Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come to do your will, O God,
as it is written of me in the scroll of the book.’”
[8] When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), [9] then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second. [10] And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. — Hebrews 10:5-10 ESVIt is the submission of the will to the redemptive purpose of God that is the core reality of laying down one’s life and offering one’s body — both for Jesus and the husband. This kind of offering denies the flesh because it does not allow it to influence the will. More than this, it bends natural energy of the will — the pith of life — away from its normal self-preserving drive towards the advancement of God’s ends, regardless of cost. This is the first step that opens up the veil into to realms of purifying grace and holy power for the Bride and wife (v. 20)
To be clear, this means a husband must cast down flesh-driven intentions: the quest for status or consumption, desires for sensation, greed, and ambition. Further, he must understand the purpose and intents of God, both generally in Scripture and specifically in the case of his wife’s prophetic identity and bend his will to this will, even when they are opposed to the natural course of his own will or may cost him life: time, money, pain, and blood.
This opens up the way for the wife to be holy-special. This is far beyond wining-and-dining to elevate a wife’s status through decadent pampering or comparative conspicuous consumption — the bride price for a woman as property of a man. Instead, this invests in opening the space — buying her the farm — so she can come into her pure self by accessing the seat of divine power (v 19-23).
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This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by Ben.
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This reply was modified 2 months, 1 week ago by
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[11] And every priest stands daily at his service, offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. [12] But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, [13] waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. [14] For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.
[15] And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,
[16] “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, declares the Lord:
I will put my laws on their hearts,
and write them on their minds,”
[17] then he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
[18] Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin. — Hebrews 10:11-18 ESVJesus’ sacrifice opens a way for both himself and us into the throne room of Heaven where he is seated in at the right hand of power. This is a masculine vision of love — power used rightly for the sake of the beloved. As such power flows by the Spirit, it accomplishes the prophesied second birth, removing hearts of stone (Ezekiel 11:19-20) to write on new hearts and minds of flesh God’s laws:
25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes. You will keep my ordinances and do them. — Ezekiel 36:25-27 WEB
This regenerative power is the heart of the new covenant.
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