Marriage in Christ

14th Sermon in the Series: Who is the Church? A Study of Ephesians
Dr. Timothy Keller 15 January 2012

Ephesians 5:21-33
21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and 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. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother to be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

MARRIAGE IS:
--a binding promise of future love.
--a creation of time and will.
--Early passion is about ego--because I feel good when someone likes me.

MARRIAGE DOES:
--help you become what God had originally intended, not what you are.
--Phillipins 1:3-6
--help you get there in fellowship with the spouse
--bridge the gap between genders
--Husbands don't use authority to please yourself, but must sacrifice it for the wife always.

MARRIAGE MEANS:
--a gospel based love philantropy
--recapitulating the gospels in your marriage.
--Loving God most will allow you to love your spouse well

MARRIAGE, LIKE EVERYTHING, points to our relationship with Jesus