-
jeff
  - Joined on 09-08-2006
- Lichfield, UK
- Posts 54
|
Biblical Manhood & Womanhood: How A Man Should Love His Wife
Biblical Manhood & Womanhood
by Jeff Fry, Pastor of Darwin Park Community Church Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing {26 Or having cleansed} her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church-- 30 for we are members of his body. 31 "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." {31 Gen. 2:24} 32 This is a profound mystery-- but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:21 Bądźcie sobie wzajemnie poddani w bojaźni Chrystusowej! 22 Żony niechaj będą poddane swym mężom, jak Panu, 23 bo mąż jest głową żony, jak i Chrystus - Głową Kościoła: On - Zbawca Ciała. 24 Lecz jak Kościół poddany jest Chrystusowi, tak i żony mężom - we wszystkim. 25 Mężowie miłujcie żony, bo i Chrystus umiłował Kościół i wydał za niego samego siebie, 26 aby go uświęcić, oczyściwszy obmyciem wodą, któremu towarzyszy słowo, 27 aby osobiście stawić przed sobą Kościół jako chwalebny, nie mający skazy czy zmarszczki, czy czegoś podobnego, lecz aby był święty i nieskalany. 28 Mężowie powinni miłować swoje żony, tak jak własne ciało. Kto miłuje swoją żonę, siebie samego miłuje. 29 Przecież nigdy nikt nie odnosił się z nienawiścią do własnego ciała, lecz każdy je żywi i pielęgnuje, jak i Chrystus - Kościół, 30 bo jesteśmy członkami Jego Ciała. 31 Dlatego opuści człowiek ojca i matkę, a połączy się z żoną swoją, i będą dwoje jednym ciałem. 32 Tajemnica to wielka, a ja mówię: w odniesieniu do Chrystusa i do Kościoła. 33 W końcu więc niechaj także każdy z was tak miłuje swą żonę jak siebie samego! A żona niechaj się odnosi ze czcią do swojego męża!
Thesis: A husband should love his wife sacrificially.
I. Intro
A. We desparately need a God-soaked view of what a man is and what a woman is in our world.
B. Inequality of personhood of men and women abounds. Due to our sinfulness which the Bible affirms, we have warped God's view of men and women. Consider …
1. … that as recently as 1918 women could not vote in the UK.
2. In 1970 the equal pay act was passed in the UK.
3. In 1975 the Sex Discrimination Act made it illegal to discriminate against women in education, recruitment, or advertising.
4. The employment protection Act in 1975 made it illegal to sack a woman because she was pregnant.
C. Yet the passage we studied just two weeks ago, Galatians 2:27-28 written around 50A.D., called for the equality of men and women in their personhood.
1. Each is created in the image of God
2. Each is as worthy as the other in the eyes of God
3. "There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus."
4. Today we will look at what a man's attitude, role and responsibility should be toward his wife (next week we will look at the wife's attitude toward the husband).
5. I say a husband's responsibility toward his wife because that is the context of the passage we will look at but I believe that this contains pointers for a man's attitude toward women in other situations and contexts - e.g. dating relationships, the church , etc..
II. A Husband should love his wife sacrificially
A. State
1. first, in Eph. 5:21 God's word reminds us that we are all to submit to one another. So, before saying that wives should submit to their husbands, this is a reminder to husbands that they too have a duty to submit to the needs of others like Phil. 2:3 says, "cregard one another as more important than yourselves;" and talks about the servanthood of Christ.
2. Then it moves on with a specific assertion that the man is "the head of the wife".
a) head can mean
(1) authority
(2) source
b) The context here points to authority because Christ is the authority over the church which submits to Him as the man is the authority over the woman.
c) Paul is not saying that in every situation and context that a woman should submit to the headship and leadership of a man. But they should in marriage or instances where the man's leadership is necessary.
3. Now in verse 25 it shows the nature of this headship - sacrificial love!
a) Eph 5:25 says, "25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her"
b) This is an amazing statement. The headship or authority isn't a lording over it type of role. Paul doesn't say, "husband be head over your wife". It is a sacrificial love role that the husband has.
c) Christ's love is the role model for the husband. And Christ sacrificially gave his life for the church.
B. Illustrate
1. "Life Is Beautiful" is a film in which is told the story of a Jewish bookstore owner and his son during WWII who are deported to a concentration camp. Using his spirit and imagination, he tries to save his family during their stay in the camp. But in the end just before they are freed from the camp, he is caught and executed while trying to save his wife from death. The next day when the Allies freed everyone, His son and wife are reunited but without him. At the end of the film the boy gives testimony to the love of his Father for him and his mother.
2. That's the kind of headship and leadership Christ's church needs today!
3. Where are you men who will love your wives like this.
C. Apply
1. One of the little things which I do to be a leader in our house is to help my wife prepare for her work in the mornings. Three days a week she packs the car with all her things and heads off. And it is a good amount of things. So, I help her pack the car. A little thing, but we have to be faithful in the little things first and then maybe when the big things come along we will be well-trained so as to be able to cope with the bigger things.
III. Conclusion
A. So this puts a totally different picture to the word "man" hopefully that we have accepted from the world. The beer-swilling, women trashing style of "Men Behaving Badly" takes a mean beating here in Scripture.
B. Men you must renew your minds to get a proper picture of who you are in God's eyes.
C. For some of you it will mean :
1. stepping up to spiritual leadership in the home or a dating relationship which you haven't given up to now.
2. It will mean initiating prayer with your wife and children and making God the centre of your home.
D. For some it may mean changing your idea of headship and leadership. You will need to become more of a servant leader and sacrificial lover and less of a dictator. I hope we don't have any of these people in our church!
E. In Eph 5:31 Paul grounds what he has said about husbands and wives in a quote from Genesis 2:24 about the husband and wife relationship - He says they become "one flesh". You can't become any more united than one flesh.
1. Men love your wife sacrificially. Give up your desires and goals for hers. Give up your time and money for her. Then you will be a proper reflection of Christ and the church.
2. How does your marriage reflect the church? Does your marriage show the church in a good light? If someone looked at your marriage to see what the church was like - what would they see? Would they see fighting, bickering, judgementalism and unforgiveness? Or would they see sacrifice, love, servanthood and grace?
For questions, comments or further information contact:
Rev Jeff Fry
Darwin Park Community Church
|
|