HUSBAND AND WIFE – CHRIST AND THE CHURCH
Monday – March 13, 2017
Greetings in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Welcome to The Three Minute Word Publication where we will continue our Bible Study from the Book of Ephesians. First notice the picture with the results of a huge snowstorm in Maine at a friend’s home. Hard to imagine isn’t it? Also at the end of todays teaching find the links to my recent books published on Amazon. Now, let’s dive right into the Book of Ephesians.
Ephesians 5:30-33 (KJV)
30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
I suspect that we are all well aware that the Apostle Paul has been weaving in and out of the relationship of Jesus with the Church, and the husband with the wife. The Apostle tells us that he is using, by the unction of the Holy Spirit, the example of the husband and wife to illustrate the relationship of Christ and the Church. For us today, I think for the most part people in the Church are aware that they are subordinate to the Lord Jesus. Now, our behavior may not illustrate that relationship of Him being the head and us the body. The difference of this relationship and the human body is that my arm cannot resist the order from my brain to move a certain way. However, we as individuals in the body of Christ can resist and go in an entirely different direction from the instructions of our Lord. Unlike the relationship of our natural brain and body we are freewill creatures concerning the spiritual realm and our relationship to Christ.
Today we do not need so much to be reminded of our subordinate position of authority to Jesus Christ but that of the wife to the husband. In our secular American culture there is outright rebellion against this idea or relationship. Anything else will not work but as with most wickedness it takes us quite some time to reach that conclusion. Now remember all that we have discussed to this point, women are in no way inferior before God or even their husbands. When we are born again we entered into a contract, a Blood Covenant, with God and in that process agreed to the terms of that contract. In marriage the husband and wife enter into a covenant one with the other and in so doing the husband and the wife agree to honor the terms of that covenant before God. Now let us turn our attention to a familiar Scripture.
Ephesians 5:31 (KJV)
31 For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
With this verse, Paul is repeating what God said to Adam, the Man and the Woman, in the Garden of Eden.
Genesis 2:24 (KJV)
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
The man (birth male) is to leave his father (male) and mother (female) and will cleave (impinge, cling or adhere; figurative to catch by pursuit: – abide fast, cleave (fast together), follow close (hard after), be joined (together), keep (fast), overtake, pursue hard, stick, take. Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.) to his wife (birth female). Just as God is one even though three persons so are the husband and wife one even though two persons. One in thought, word, ways and thus purpose. All of which are of God. Jesus reiterates this in the New Testament and the admonition against divorce in Matthew 19:6. The reason that divorce even comes onto anyone’s radar is that the husband has not cleaved to his wife and loved her as Christ loves the Church and the wife has not submitted to her husband becoming one flesh. The husband and wife are to be submitted one to the other. The wife according to her agreement on entering into the marriage is to be submitted to the Godly authority (higher power) of the husband and both are to be in submission to Christ Jesus.
Matthew 19:4-6 (KJV)
4 And he answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female,
5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?
6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
