The Epistle to the Ephesians

1. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 • Ephesians 5:22 – “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” • ILG – “The wives to their own husbands as to the Lord.” • wives - gynē, a woman • a wife, woman. • husbands – anēr, a man • a fellow, husband, man, sir • ‘submit’ or ‘subject to’, implied but not directly stated in ILG, NASB, ASV. • See Col 3:18 where ‘submit’ of ‘be subject to’ is in all versions • Present middle imperative – yes, this you must do but who’s doing it? • Let’s relate to this to all of the other imperatives that have preceded this. • and realize that this submission is ‘as to or is fit untothe Lord’! • What does this mean? 1 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel

2. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 • to ‘submit’ to one’s control • to ‘yield’ to one’s admonition and advice • J. Vernon McGee says that ‘respond’ is a better term • To a sweet and willing man that loves her • What controls these kind of responses? • Is this gritting your teeth? • Is it trying harder to please? • Is it conditional, i.e. if your husband lives up to his end of the imperative? • Gen 3:16 “To the woman He said: "I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.“ 2 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel

3. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 • 1 Cor 14:34 “Let your women keep silent in the churches, for they are not permitted to speak; but they areto be submissive, as the law also says.” • Titus 2:5 “to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.” • Let’s read I Peter 3:1-6 • How are you wives doing here? • Notice verse 4, ‘the hidden man of the heart’! • The last Adam, the new creation • That’s in whom true submission is sourced. • Ephesians 5:23 “For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.” • The explanation • Head – anything chief, supreme, or prominent • Body – soma, in context of Christ • Geneva – ‘because the good estate of the wife depends on the man, so that this submission is not only just, but also very profitable: as also the 3 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel

4. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 • salvation of the Church depends on Christ, although to a far greater degree.’ • Let’s discuss ‘although to a far greater degree’ • Really? • Why? • Eph 1:22,23 “And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” • How are you doing here husbands? • Are you filling her with all in all? • Ephesians 5:24 “Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their ‘own’ husbands in everything.” • What is the ‘Therefore’ there for? 4 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel

5. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 • What does this relationship look like? • close • no bondage • free • transparent • tender • uplifting • in truth • Spirit-led, • Does the Lord really mean everything? • That’s what the Greek term pas indicates • And when ‘in’ precedes everything it indicates all. • However, 'The whole world is gone after him.' Did all the world go after Christ? 'Then went all Judea, and were baptized of him in Jordan.' Was all Judea, or all Jerusalem baptized in Jordan? 'Ye are of God, little children', and 'the whole world lieth in the wicked one.' Does 'the 5 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel

6. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 whole world' there mean everybody? If so, how was it, then, that there were some who were 'of God?' The words 'world' and 'all' are used in some seven or eight senses in Scripture; and it is very rarely that 'all' means all persons, taken individually. The words are generally used to signify that Christ has redeemed some of all sorts-some Jews, some Gentiles, some rich, some poor, and has not restricted his redemption to either Jew or Gentile." - Charles H. Spurgeon, Particular Redemption, A Sermon, Feb 28, 1858. • Or does ‘everything’ here pertain to a husband's legitimate authority; "in the Lord” only? • i.e. everything not contrary to God. • Who is responding in the wife, the sin nature or the New Man in Christ? • If so, is this position consistent with other scripture, i.e. Rom 8:28? • Submission does not mean blind obedience or passivity. It means giving oneself up to someone else, again respond. 6 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel

7. The Epistle to the Ephesians Marital Bliss: Ephesians 5:22-24 • ‘Our frustrations and agonies in an effort to attain the unattainable, our shame and our defeats such as we find in ….. Romans 7, come about naturally and inevitably when, failing to grasp all this, we put the emphasis on our conduct rather than our position, which must come first’ – FJH, None But Hungry Heart Series, July 12 • Why does not God ask the wife to love her husband? • Does she not love the Lord (as to the Lord)? • Is this already wrapped up in the Christian love for the brethren (so her husband is included)? • I John 4:19-21 ‘We love ‘Him’ because He first loved us. If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how ‘can’ he love God whom he has not seen? And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God [must] love his brother also.’ 7 July 12, 2009 Bob Eckel