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[0:00] All right, guys, are you ready?

[0:18] Men, good to study tonight, husbands.! I'm not going to crucify our men here tonight, our husbands here tonight.

[0:48] I'm not going to do that. I'm a husband myself. And I have a real keen sense of self-preservation. And, you know, I don't want to...

[1:01] All right, anyway, enough of that. We'll get to the text here in just a moment. In fact, I'm not going to read it until we get to a certain spot. And then we'll kind of out-read some of it, all of it, by and by as we move our way through the passage.

[1:16] Our subject, just to remind you, and you've got the title of it there at the top of your notes, our subject, and not just a subject I've chosen, it's the subject of the text, the larger text.

[1:28] And that is how to be right in our relationships. And it's so crucial that we understand from Scripture about relationships, how we can have right relationships.

[1:41] It's so important, really, to our own personal health, the health of our homes, health of our churches, and even beyond that.

[1:51] So, this is the subject, and specifically in the passage that runs from the 22nd verse of chapter 5 all the way to chapter 6, verse 9, in that larger text, those specific relationships that we're going to be dealing with, or Paul deals with, is, number one, the relationship between the husband and wife, and then, number two, relationship between parents and children, parents to children, children to parents.

[2:20] And the third one is masters and slaves, that particular relationship that, you know, we can make application in our day and in our culture to the relationship between bosses and employees, and employees to bosses and so forth.

[2:40] Now, as I pointed out last week, and I want us to keep this in our minds as well as we move through this passage, and, you know, I'll try to make, you know, reconnections with this larger theme of the book of Ephesians, which is the church. That's the larger theme. This is a church epistle. You need to keep that in mind.

[3:03] So, everything that Paul includes in this letter has, you know, an immediate intent, as well as an intent for that to fit into the larger subject.

[3:18] And, again, in Ephesians, it's the church. And so, what do right relationships have to do with the church? Or, what do these relationships have to do with the church, like the marriage relationship, the home, the workplace?

[3:33] What do they have to do with the church? Well, the answer, again, is the health and effectiveness of any church, our church, any church, is directly related to these relationships, the health of these relationships.

[3:50] Number one, to the harmony in the Christian home, whether we're talking about the marriage relationship or the parent-child relationship, the harmony in the home, and also honor among God's people, believers, Christians out there in the workplace.

[4:08] Those two relationships have a great bearing upon the health of the church, effectiveness of the church.

[4:19] It's important for us to know that. And that's why Paul inserts this section on relationships in a church epistle, because they're connected together. I want to remind you of something else as well, and this, too, we must keep in mind, really, for the rest of our study of the book of Ephesians.

[4:41] And that is to keep in mind the significance of verse 18, which we studied several weeks ago. Verse 18, and the principle of being filled, or the command to be filled with the Spirit.

[4:53] How significant that verse is to all of Paul's teachings about relationships, and a little bit later, Paul's teachings about putting on the armor of God, and so forth.

[5:09] Being filled with the Holy Spirit is absolutely crucial. I even called it last week the linchpin to all of this about relationships, and linchpin really to a healthy church.

[5:19] The Holy Spirit is the linchpin that secures the wheel of the Christian life. We carry that metaphor over into that. And so what does it do? The Holy Spirit is what keeps your life moving in the right direction, your spiritual life.

[5:36] And that spiritual life, of course, crosses over into every other context of your life. So the Holy Spirit is what keeps your life moving, and that is provided you are yielded to the control and power of the Holy Spirit.

[5:54] All right, so we've already looked then, as we've studied the first part of the book of Ephesians, the first four chapters, and on into chapter 5, we've already looked at the importance of the Holy Spirit in the household of God.

[6:07] That's the church. And so now what are we looking at? We're looking at the importance of the Holy Spirit in your household and my household. And the first relationship that Paul addresses is husbands and wives.

[6:22] Only Paul reverses the order. It begins with the ladies. He starts with the ladies first. I mean, it ought to be ladies first, right? I mean, isn't that proper etiquette?

[6:33] Guys, right? We need the ladies to go first, and we say we're wholeheartedly in agreement with that. In this case, we'll let the ladies go first. And that's how Paul begins. It begins with the wives.

[6:44] And let me read those few verses there again, even though we've studied these last week. Verse 22 to 24. Therefore, wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord. The husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church.

[6:58] And he is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own, be subject to their own husbands in everything.

[7:09] All right? So there you have it. And ladies, don't worry. I'm not going to go back over all of that again. Now, husbands. All right?

[7:20] It's time for the husbands. And let me read that portion of the passage. In fact, this is what we'll be studying here tonight. In fact, I forgot to put verse 33 on there, but we'll get to it later.

[7:33] But let me read these verses. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. Now, guys, we're going to wish he hadn't added that part on that.

[7:47] Now, love your wives. All right, okay, I'll do that. That sounds easy. I'd much rather do that than have to submit to somebody. And that's what we might think. But then Paul tacks on this other, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her.

[8:02] That makes it pretty hard. All right? We'll get to that. That he, that is Christ, might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word.

[8:14] That he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. But that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies.

[8:29] He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh and of his bones.

[8:43] For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, Paul said, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

[8:57] And then we'll get to verse 33 a little bit later. All right, now, ladies. Say, I thought you were going to talk to the guys here. Well, men, too.

[9:09] We need to notice a few kind of preliminary things as we get into, before we get into the text itself. Well, first of all, you need to notice that the overarching duty of the husband is to, what?

[9:28] Love. Love his wife. That's the overarching duty. The word love, I think it appears five times in the text. Several times in relation to the husband. A few times in relation to Christ as the analogy.

[9:42] And so, love is the overarching duty. All right? There's no denying that. It's very clear. A second thing we ought to note, just kind of some preliminary, kind of introductory things.

[9:57] Paul takes, I want you to notice here, ladies, that Paul takes up three times more space to tell husbands to love their wives than to tell wives to submit to their husbands.

[10:10] He said, well, big deal. You know, it's no mystery to me. That's what the ladies say. I mean, the husbands are dumb. You know, they need more information.

[10:22] You know, they need everything explained to them. Does that work, by the way? Explained. All right. Okay. Well, I thought I'd use it.

[10:33] And so, it's no mystery, you know, that Paul would spend more copy, more time talking to the husbands.

[10:45] All right? But that's not why Paul did it. It is, I think, an indication, though I can't say that this was on Paul's mind, but it is, I think, an indication that loving is at least three times harder than submitting.

[11:04] Loving, that is, in the way in which Paul instructs, admonishes husbands to love their wives. Much harder. The third thing that we might as well do, and that's kind of define the word love, Paul exhorts husbands to have Christ love.

[11:27] I'm going to call it that. Christ love for their wives. We know it's agape, the word out of the Greek dictionary is agapao, but we understand that word, don't we?

[11:40] And we understand, or should understand, that it is not just your regular kind of run-of-the-mill, everyday kind of love. It's not a love that the world can express.

[11:54] Though, you know, in the world there are some examples of sacrificial love, but this is a God love.

[12:04] This is a Christ kind of love. I think I may have given you the three Greek words that are translated love. That's the beauty of the Greek language.

[12:15] We have one word. We have the word love. The Greeks have three, so that they can distinguish the kinds of love. There's eros.

[12:26] We get our word erotic from it, so you can kind of guess what it means. I've given you a short definition anyway. It's a physical love or physical passion. And not necessarily is it only related to immoral kinds of illicit kinds of sexual behavior.

[12:47] It's not just for that, but it does describe that. But it is passion. It's a passion. It's physical. It's a physical love. Now, I didn't put this in your notes, but that word eros doesn't appear anywhere in the Bible.

[13:01] Nowhere in the New Testament. All right, so that one of the three words that the Greeks have for the word love, for the meaning of love, doesn't appear in the Bible.

[13:11] The other two do, phileo, and you know about that one. That's brotherly love or friendship love. It's also applied to family affection and so forth.

[13:23] And, you know, phileo, Philadelphia. You know the meaning of the word. And then agapao, or usually it's, people will pronounce it agape, agape love.

[13:39] And that's self-giving, of course, sacrificial love. Now, the love, the word that Paul used, and you don't have to guess about it.

[13:51] You know that it's agape, agape, agape love. It's self-sacrificial love. All right, so that's the kind of love that he's talking about, husbands, that you are to have for your wife.

[14:02] It's agape love. It's a self-sacrificing love. All right, so now while we're talking about the definition of the word, let me mention something about the grammatical form that is important.

[14:15] And you've heard me say this so many times about a certain form or tense of a verb. And so the verbal form of agapao, or agape, is present tense.

[14:31] And that means what? Continuous action. Continuous action. So it's not a hit or miss thing. Husband's not just when you feel like it, or when you're in the right mood, or not when, just when maybe she deserves it.

[14:49] Something like that. It's continuous. Continuous. So husbands, we could expand Paul's exhortation here and say, husbands, continuously, continually, continuously love your wives in a self-sacrificing way.

[15:08] That would be kind of putting it all together. All right, so you continuously love, husbands continuously love their wives, not just as long as she is attractive. I mean, have you looked, guys, have you looked at yourself in the mirror?

[15:24] You're no prize. All right, so you don't just love your wife because, you know, as long as she's attractive or that she is lovely. But, not just as long as she is.

[15:35] Not just as long as the feeling exists. Because love is not a feeling anyway. It's not. Not by definition. Now, eros is a feeling.

[15:47] That comes out of emotions and out of the flesh of bad or good and usually bad. But agape is not a feeling, not an emotion.

[16:01] Now, emotions accompany it, accompany it. But it's not first and foremost and at its origin or even its motivation is not based upon feeling.

[16:14] All right, so husbands continuously love your wives. And that leads us to kind of a fifth thing that we should notice. And then we'll get into the text here. So, twice the husband is exhorted to love his wife.

[16:28] And each time Paul's exhortation is explained through an analogy. Through an analogy. And so you have two analogies. And this is an easy way to kind of divide the text up.

[16:38] You can see how Paul's thought, his full thought, runs here throughout the text. Verse 25, husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church.

[16:50] Now, words like as, good clue that this is an analogy. Husbands love your wives just as Christ also loved the church.

[17:02] And then verse 28, so husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. As their own bodies. So you can see that the text can be divided very neatly into those two main parts.

[17:16] All right, so first of all, husbands love your wives as Christ loved his. So that's number one, love as Christ loved his body. And we'll get to it in a moment.

[17:28] But the second one is husbands love your wives as man loves his body. All right, so it's kind of interesting to remember it that way. We love husbands, love your wives as Christ loved his body.

[17:41] And also the other analogy as a man loves his body. And then we'll kind of flesh all this out as we go along. All right, so first of all, love Christ as, or love as Christ loved his body.

[17:56] And the analogy is really very profound. In fact, it is so profound that it is a challenge to grasp it, to get a hold of it.

[18:10] It's a challenge to understand the analogy. But it's an even greater challenge to apply the analogy to a husband's love for his wife.

[18:20] Because it's just too up there, too high, too lofty, too, I mean, how in the world? And yet, this is the analogy that Paul uses. And so we need to understand the points of the analogy.

[18:33] It's intended, you see, the analogy, like all analogies, intended to define or demonstrate the kind of love a husband is to have for his wife.

[18:46] So Christ is the one, and his love for the church is demonstrating the kind of love that husbands are to have for their wife. Now, with each step of the way, as we go through this, we discover, husbands, that this is hard.

[19:03] Extremely hard. And the wives thought it was hard to submit to husbands. But this is infinitely harder. Well, I don't know about infinitely. Much, much, much harder.

[19:15] But you could not find a more perfect analogy. Christ and the church, his body, the husband and his wife, or his bride. Or maybe put it this way, Christ and his bride, husbands and their brides.

[19:30] All right, so the idea, then, if you include the wives into this thing, what Paul has said to the wives, the idea is the submission that is demanded of the wife must be met, should be met by the self-sacrificial love of the husband.

[19:49] Those two should come together. And when they come together, then you have a very healthy marriage. A wife who is in subjection to the headship of her husband.

[20:02] And that submission to her husband is complemented by, is met by the self-sacrificial love of the husband. Now, that's the ideal.

[20:14] That's exactly what God wants. Now, I will say this, I need to add this, because I understand some realities. That is, the one is not conditional based upon the other.

[20:28] That is, wives, and there's no getting around this, because it's right here in the Bible, wives must submit to their husbands whether or not their husbands love them like Christ loves them or loves the church.

[20:41] It's not a, well, if he doesn't do his part, then I don't have to do mine. And likewise, husbands must love their wives, sacrificially love their wives, whether or not their wives are submissive to them as unto the Lord.

[20:55] So, it's not one conditional upon the other. But rather, Paul is describing what can be, what ought to be, as each one, husband, wife, are yielded to the control and power of the Holy Spirit.

[21:15] What can be, what ought to be, is submission is also met by self-sacrificial love. And that is a healthy relationship. All right, now, how did Christ give himself for his church?

[21:29] Now, we just think about this analogy. And how it might relate or apply or cross over into the relationship between husband and wife. Well, Paul says two things about this.

[21:42] And they are analogous, I think, to the husband's relationship to the bride. Two things. Christ gave himself to perfect the body.

[21:55] And we're talking about Christ in the church here. Then we'll take that analogy and cross it over into the relationship between the husband and wife.

[22:05] So, here's the first thing. And Christ gave himself to perfect, to perfect the body. I'll go ahead and just jump ahead and say, if that's the analogy, then husbands have that same duty.

[22:18] They, through their love, they are perfecting their bride. They are working to cultivate perfection and purity in their bride.

[22:29] We'll get to that here in a minute. All right, so Christ gave himself to perfect the body. And then, Paul says three things about that. First of all, number one, Christ's sacrificial love.

[22:46] Christ's sacrificial love. What did verse 25 say? Christ also loved the church and did what? Gave himself. Gave himself for her.

[22:58] Gave himself. Gave himself. Those words suggest sacrifice. In fact, it is a word for offering. Very much like the sacrifice would be brought to the temple and would be offered, be laid on the altar.

[23:13] Only in this case, Christ is the sacrifice. And he offers himself for her. And so, Christ's sacrificial love.

[23:27] Jesus Christ sacrificed his life for his bride. The church. The church is the bride of Christ. So, here's the crossover to the analogy, how it crosses over.

[23:42] Husbands must be willing to sacrifice their lives for their brides. You say, well, piece of cake. If I ever have the need to, I'll be glad to lay my life down.

[23:54] And I think most husbands would mean that. But, believe it or not, sacrificial love demands a much deeper and all-inclusive commitment than just the willingness to die for your wife if the need ever rises.

[24:09] Because, you know, it's a pretty easy commitment to make because probably that will never ever happen. You know, I mean, you're thinking. I don't think, I can't think of a scenario where I have to actually do it.

[24:21] Actually, give my life a die for my wife. Though it could happen. And in your heart of hearts, you're saying, well, if it does happen, that need arises.

[24:32] I'll do it. And I believe it. But, it's even harder. And believe it or not, it's easier to die for someone than it is to sacrifice all the other things in life.

[24:49] In fact, I'm reminded of Peter when Jesus said that he would deny him. Peter said, oh, no, no. I'd die for you. Go to jail for you.

[25:02] Die for you. And the problem there, I think the message there, Peter would be willing to die for Jesus. He just wasn't quite ready to live for it. And there's where the problem was.

[25:13] So, when the tire hit the road out there, people would say, hey, you were, I saw you with Jesus. Oh, no. I'm not part of that. You know. He'd be willing to die. Oh, yeah, sure.

[25:23] But, now, husband would be willing to die. If the need arose. If it ever got to that. But, what about all the other things? And so, a husband's willingness to sacrifice his life for his wife must include a willingness to make all the other lesser sacrifices for her.

[25:45] Everything else would be, in a sense, a lesser sacrifice than the ultimate sacrifice of giving your life. This is what we're talking about. So, the analogy demands that a husband put his own life second and his wife's life first in everything.

[26:05] His likes, his desires, his opinions. You say, well, I was just saying, man, if I could just find a husband like that. You know, his opinions. You know, put his opinions aside.

[26:19] His preferences, his welfare. There, if and when, putting these aside is required to please and meet his wife's needs. That's pretty tall order.

[26:31] You say, well, I don't know if God really expects that. Well, did Christ do that for you? He absolutely did. Absolutely. So, here's the point of the analogy. The husband dies to self in order to live for his wife.

[26:48] Because that is what Christ's love does. That's what Christ's love does. All right, that leads to a second thing. Christ's substitutionary life.

[27:01] His substitutionary life. We have that in here, too. Now, very closely related to the idea of sacrificial love. But it's substitutionary life.

[27:13] Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her. I know I've spent time on this little word for a number of times over the years.

[27:24] It's such a significant little word in the Bible. Because it's a translation of a certain Greek word that means literally in behalf of.

[27:39] In behalf of. Another translation would be for the sake of. But that even lessens it a little bit. In behalf of says something quite profound.

[27:52] Because that's what Christ did for his bride. He died on the cross in behalf of his bride. He took her place.

[28:03] He stood in her place. And so the analogy is really quite simple. Husbands stand in for their wives when their wives cannot stand for themselves.

[28:17] Ladies, don't be offended. The Bible says that you're the weaker vessel. And I know where my wife is weak. Weaker.

[28:29] Not talking about spiritual weakness. Just talking about the way she's made. And wired. And she needs me to stand in for her.

[28:42] Quite often. And I need to be conscious of those times when I need to do that. Like tell the waitress that she's come and take my wife's undercooked steak back.

[28:56] Because she's too afraid to ask her to do it. Okay. See as a guy. I'm sitting there. And if my steak isn't quite right. I'm just going to eat it anyway.

[29:07] Because I don't care. Amen. But I can look over at my wife and I can tell on her face. It's not to her liking. And she's just too timid to say anything about it.

[29:22] And so who's going to do it? I'm going to do it for her. Now that's a very simple example. But to stand in for her.

[29:33] You know, you speak for her when she cannot speak for herself. You stand up for her when she cannot stand. You're strong for her when she is weak.

[29:47] Those times when she is weak. Now there are a lot of things my wife is plenty strong about to do. I don't have to stand in for her. Sometimes she has to stand in for me. You know. But to husband is to stand in behalf of her.

[30:05] To love her in that sense. To take the blame for her sometimes. She messes up. Or to take criticism for her. Even though maybe you're not to blame.

[30:18] You know. And you don't say, well, you know. What I did for you, honey, today. You know. Do you understand the analogy? Alright, then. Number three.

[30:29] Christ's sanctifying labor. This is what it all comes down to. Verse 26. That he might sanctify and cleanse her. With the washing of water by the word.

[30:43] Now. First of all, we need to clear up something here. The phrase washing of water by the word. Is not a direct reference to any kind of baptism.

[30:56] Water or spiritual. You find all kinds of Bible commentators that say something contrary. But. The point here is not baptism of any kind.

[31:08] The word baptism is not even there. Washing of water by the word. And literally. We could say sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water.

[31:22] With the word. With the word of God. The idea being that the word of God. Cleanses like water. It in itself is an analogy.

[31:34] The water is not the cleansing agent. Or the baptism is not the cleansing agent. The word of God is.

[31:44] The word of God is the cleansing agent. In. A person's life. And so in the context of Christ's sanctifying labor. Saving grace.

[31:56] Works through the word of God. As a cleansing agent. To make the believer holy. It's the word of God applied. That does that. That's in the context of Christ.

[32:07] Christ in his body. In his church. In the context of the husband's sanctifying labor. It would be a husband. Must apply the word of God. His own life.

[32:18] Well as. In the marriage relationship. In order. And in the home. In order to cultivate. Purity and sanctity. In his wife.

[32:30] It is. In a sense. To create. Such a. Word environment. A godly. Environment. All around her. So that she increases in.

[32:41] Godliness. And purity. So you know. You don't. Turn on certain movies. In the house. Not only for yourself.

[32:52] But for your. For your wife. You don't. Require certain kind of. Things for her to do. That. And go. And you know. And submit herself. And subject herself to.

[33:02] That could harm her. Spiritual. And. You don't. Contradict. God's word. In the home. And in your relationship. With your wife. Because. You.

[33:13] It is the word of God. That cleanses. And cultivates. Purity. In the life. And so the husband. Has a responsibility. To make. Make sure. That that's the kind of. Environment.

[33:25] There is. In their marriage. As well as in. In the home. And there's a whole lot. That we could say. About all of that. Let me move on. All right. So first Christ gave himself.

[33:37] To perfect the body. And then second. Christ gave himself. To present the body. I guess we could say. To present it perfect. Verse 27.

[33:49] That he might present her. To himself. A glorious church. Not having spot. Or wrinkle. Or any such thing. But that she should be holy. And without blemish. All right. So this is the analogy.

[34:02] It's interesting. How. How Paul. Weaves together. The admonition. And instructions. Related to. The husband and wife.

[34:13] Relationship. And weaves that together. With some very. Deep. Theological truth. Now. I'm not going to delve. So much into the theological. Side of this.

[34:24] As much as the practical. Because. Because he's. He's talking about. The husband and wife. Wife relationship. But. Notice again. What he said. In verse 27. Holy and without blemish.

[34:35] To present her. Holy. And without blemish. We can back up. A glorious church. No spot. No wrinkle. Holy. Without blemish. That's how the church.

[34:47] Will be. Presented. One day. At the end of the age. The bride of Christ. Will be presented. Holy. You say. Well. I'm not holy.

[34:58] Well. No you're not. You're set apart. In that sense of holy. But. The church is. Is not holy. In any practical sense. We're very unholy.

[35:09] We're sinners. We fail all the time. We. We do ungodly things. And. And we have that flesh. And there's that pollution of sin. In our life. We can never escape. In this life. One day.

[35:20] All that will be burned away. All that will be. Completely obliterated. At the judgment seat of Christ. And we will be presented. As a. As the bride of Christ.

[35:31] Without blemish. Without spot. A glorious church. And Christ will accomplish that. One day. That will be a glorious day. But similarly. Husbands will.

[35:43] Should. In part. Well actually will. In part. Be held accountable. For the spiritual maturity. And purity. Of their wives. As they stand before Christ.

[35:54] The wife is. Under your. Is your responsibility. And you're accountable. For how she.

[36:07] Matures spiritually. That's pretty. Pretty. Incredible thing. Alright. So. Paul. Then gives husbands. Two analogies.

[36:18] To help explain. What it means to love. Their wives. So first. Love. As Christ loves his body. And now the second analogy. Love. As a man.

[36:29] Loves his body. Alright. Verse 28. So husbands. Ought to love their own wives. As their own bodies. Here's another analogy. He who loves his wife.

[36:41] Loves himself. For no one ever hated. His own flesh. But nourishes. And cherishes it. Just as the Lord. Does the church. Now. Say to you. That whereas.

[36:51] The first analogy. Is profound. This second analogy. Is practical. Very practical. And I'm glad.

[37:02] That Paul. Included this one in here. You know. It may be. Very difficult. For a man. To understand. And apply. To his marriage. The analogy.

[37:12] Of Christ's love. For the body. For the church. I mean. Difficult. To count. Love. To bring those two things together. But every man. Can grasp.

[37:23] The concept. Of loving his own body. That's a simple concept. A simple analogy. As long as we understand it. So Paul. Is. Interesting.

[37:34] It's almost. You might even think. A bit of a contradiction. At first. He starts out. With self-sacrifice. And now. He's talking about. Self-love. A husband's love for self.

[37:45] Although we need to understand. Exactly what he's talking about here. So. We could say. That the second analogy. Is consistent. With Christ's teaching.

[37:57] Of what we. You know. We've come to call. The golden rule. The golden rule. Applies here. Matthew 7. 12. Therefore. Whatever you want men to do to you.

[38:08] Do also to them. That's the. Quote. Golden rule. So that's the principle here. And now. The phrase. Just as the Lord.

[38:19] Does the church. It's kind of. Tapped on the end of that. Verse 28. That phrase. Reveals. That the husband's duty. Is more than just.

[38:30] To feed. And clothe his wife. Physically. I mean. That's. You know. That's. That's something that. Most husbands. Take very seriously. You know.

[38:42] And. You know. Especially. Christian husbands. Who. You know. Learn that scripture. Man doesn't take care of his family. He's worse than an unbeliever. So forth. And so we.

[38:52] Kind of have. We don't have any problem. Applying that. To the physical needs. You know. House over there. A roof over their heads. And clothes. To wear. And food to eat.

[39:02] And. In fact. We take it very seriously. And it's even a matter of. Of some. Point of personal pride. For a husband. To make sure. That the needs. Of their family. Are met.

[39:15] But this goes. Beyond that. Of course. Way beyond that. Because. We still. Have to deal with. The analogy of Christ. Because he tacks that on. Just as the Lord.

[39:25] Does the church. Well the church. Rather the Lord. Does provide physical things. Doesn't he? Yes he does. They're not near as important. As the spiritual.

[39:36] Needs. That he provides. And. And so. He. Nourishes. And he. Cherishes. His church. And so. Nourishes. Speaks of.

[39:47] Giving. The wife. Your wife. All she needs. For growth. And for health. Not just physically. But also spiritually. And. Cherishes. Speaks of.

[39:58] Really it's a word that. That means. Tender love. Even can. Include. Intimacy. That the wife needs. The husband needs.

[40:09] Wife needs as well. Speaks of that. Tender. Care. Now Christ. Doesn't love the church. In a. You know. In a. The same. Intimate way. That a husband. Loves his wife. And wife.

[40:20] To her husband. But. The analogy. Is still. Very valid. That. He. Loves. Intimately. His body. And loves him.

[40:30] And. Cares for them. And this is how. A husband is to love. Like his wife. Just like he. Takes care of all the needs. Of his own body. And as a Christian husband.

[40:42] Should be also. Very intent on taking care of the. Love your. Your. Your body. So much. You take care of the spiritual needs as well. All right. Then Paul concludes. This passage.

[40:54] With. A couple of applications. One theological. And the other practical. So Paul's theological application. I'm not going to spend. A lot on this.

[41:05] But. Just kind of name. The. The. Identify the point. Paul's making. But. Theological application. Verses 30 to 33. For we are members of his body.

[41:17] All right. So here's. We're going back to the analogy of Christ. In the. In the church. He never really ever leaves that. It flows all the way through it. So we are members of his body.

[41:28] His flesh. And of his bone. For this reason. And then Paul quotes. The passage out of Genesis. For this reason. A man shall leave his father and mother. And be joined to his wife.

[41:39] And the two shall become one flesh. One flesh. One bone. You know. The one flesh. We understand. That concept. So Paul is. Is talking about the church. He says.

[41:49] This is a great mystery. How. You know. A husband and wife. Can. Come together. And be one flesh. Great mystery. How. One plus one.

[42:01] Equals one. One. But Paul says. I'm talking about the church. That doesn't mean he. That that's not valid. For the husband and wife relationship.

[42:12] But he's making a point. About. About the connection. Vital connection. Between a healthy. Home life.

[42:23] And a healthy church. The two are one. They're one. One flesh. They've been brought together. In unity. And so here's the application.

[42:34] The health. Of the marriage relationship. Stands as a visible. Testimony. To the truth. And validity. Of Christ. In his church. Now that's very important.

[42:46] Especially. In this day. The Supreme Court. Is. Considering. You know. Laws. Concerning marriage. A valid marriage. What marriage is.

[42:56] The whole issue. Of marriage. Is. So crucial. Today. In our culture. Because the witness. Of the church. Is linked. To a correct theology. Of marriage. A biblical concept.

[43:09] And understanding. Of marriage. And then. We get to the practical application. Verse 33. Nevertheless. Let each one of you. In particular. So love his own wife. As himself.

[43:20] And let the wife. See that she respects her husband. So he brings it all together here. And so. We kind of conclude. With this. Very practical application. If. If. Wives.

[43:31] Would. As they yield to the power. Of the Holy Spirit. Willingly. Lovingly. Joyfully. Submit to the headship. Of their husbands. In everything. We might think that's a big if.

[43:45] If. And if. Husbands. Would love. And cherish. Their wives. Just like Christ. Loves and cherishes. His bride. The church. Then. So.

[43:55] A couple of ifs. And then. Then we would see a huge change. In our homes. Our churches. Our nation. Our world. And that is the gospel truth.

[44:06] Thank you.