Today’s class is a study of Ephesians 5:21-33. A group of verses that are controversial, often attacked and many times misunderstood.

Ephesians 5:21-22 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, [submit] yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.”  In the original Greek text the second [submit] word is not there. There is not a verb in this sentence and so in traditional Greek practice, you take the verb from the previous sentence and insert it into the next sentence.  Please note that this is really important – because what this is saying is, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, to your husbands as you do to the Lord.” Meaning husband and wife alike are to submit to each other, to look out for one another, in service and submission to the Living God.

There is no denying that throughout history many men have treated many women shamefully. But that is not biblical. It is never approved.  Instead, the Scriptures tell us that God intends for married people to be a unity and to willingly submit to one another because of their reverence for Christ. Men and women are to treat their husbands in a way that is consistent with their faith.

Ephesians 5:23 goes on to say, “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.” Please note the word is “head” not the boss, not the dominant individual. It says he is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. 

How does Jesus show He is the head of the church.  He seeks what is best for her, He loves her, He sacrifices Himself for her, He gives Himself completely to her. And here it says the husband is to love His wife in that very same way. Loving, caring, supporting, defending, protecting, doing whatever it takes for the woman he loves.

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her…” That is what submission is all about.  It says, because I love the Lord, I will love my wife in the way He loves me.

Both husbands and wives are to practice submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Ephesians 5:32 goes on to say, “This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church.”  God designed marriage to be a picture of the kind of love that Jesus has for his body, the church. Marriage is a reflection of Jesus’ love.

Verse 33 concludes: “However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”  God made us male and female and He knows we each have unique needs. Husbands thrive when their wives respect them. Wives thrive when they know how deeply their husbands love them.

These verses are a prescription for a happy, joy-filled, life-long marriage.

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In this message we will look at what the Scriptures have to say about marriage, analyze concerns and questions raised in our day, overview the cultural changes that have led to many questioning the value and benefit of marriage, and do so from a Christian worldview. We will also take a look at some secular contemporary research and what it indicates.

Common Reactions:
    1.    The culture has changed:
    – Married Couples comprised:
            1950 — 78% of all US households
            2020 — 47% of all US households
    – Living together before marriage:
            1960’s — 5%
            2020’s — 70%
    – Recent analysis of the General Social Survey data tells us Americans’ happiness declined from the 1970s to the 2020s. Sam Peltzman, Professor emeritus, University of Chicago says one thing explains the most recent decline in overall happiness – the decline of marriage. 

The data indicates the benefit of what the Bible has said all along. Genesis 2:18 “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” The literal Hebrew translation for the word helper is:  “Helper equal to Him.” This is talking about two people who are complimentary to each other. Our Creator recognized we function better together.

    2.    Divorce makes me fear marriage:
    – the spike in divorce rate have left an impression on the generation raised in one parent households.

    3.    Why not just live together?
    – the Bible tells us to be faithful before and after marriage to our spouse.
    – Couples who live together:
        4-5 times more likely to break up than married couples
        more likely to divorce once they do marry (by about 50%)
        higher incidence of alcohol abuse, drug abuse and domestic violence

    4.    How can I know the right one? “Fall in like before you fall in love.” This means – find an individual who is like minded, who shares your faith, your values, your outlook on life, an individual who truly is a potential soulmate. Make sure that the person you choose as your life partner and spouse is one who holds like values and believes as you do.

    5.    I’m not sure marriage is for me: One does not need to feel pushed into marriage. In 1 Corinthians 7:7 Paul refers to the gift of celibacy saying, “I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.” God does not say everyone is to be married. 

Contemporary Research: 2 books
    ⁃    “The Two-Parent Privilege” by Melissa S. Kearney Professor of Economics, University of Maryland 2023 – tells us that “Americans stopped getting married and started falling behind.” Her work has been printed in:
    Wall Street Journal
    New York Times
    National Review 
    Atlantic Magazine
She offers a “provocative, data-driven case for marriage by showing how the institution’s decline has led to a host of economic woes…”  She shows how children do better in a family where their parents are married to each other.
    ⁃    Education outcomes
    ⁃    Physical and mental health
    ⁃    Diminishes suicide possibility
    ⁃    Serves as a barrier to alcohol and drug use and child abuse
    ⁃    Impacts Teenage pregnancy and delinquency
She comes at this on the basis of solid economic data and what we can see happening in our culture today.

    ⁃    “Get Married” by Brad Wilcox Professor Sociology, University of Virginia 2024. Also published in the following:
    ⁃    Wall Street Journal
    ⁃    New York Times
    ⁃    National Review
    ⁃    Atlantic Magazine
Wilcox tells us, “When it comes to predicting overall happiness, a good marriage is far more important than how much education you get, how much money you make, how often you have sex and even how satisfied you are with your work.”   

Pastor concludes with these thoughts: God created us, He speaks because He knows us and wants what is best for us. God invented marriage and He gives us guidance on how to have a truly blessed and God-pleasing marriage.

Malachi 2:15 says, “Has not the one God made you? You belong to him in body and spirit. And what does the one God seek? Godly offspring. So be on your guard, and do not be unfaithful to the wife of your youth.” 

Those are powerful, spirit-given words that we need to take to heart

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Genesis 1:1 – “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”

Let’s look at the words “God” and “created.” in this verse in Hebrew the word used for God is a plural noun and created is a singular verb.

What day did God create the world? It says God created everything in 6 days and He rested on the 7th day, the Sabbath, and that is Saturday. Which means the first day of creation was on Sunday. What was the day of the week that God began a new creation?  That was on the day Jesus arose from the grave. The Bible tells us this was on the first day of the week, on a Sunday.

Jesus’ closest friend, John, begins his gospel this way: “In the beginning  was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” Psalm 33:6 “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” 

In Genesis 1 we read over and over, “And God said…” God brought everything into being through His Word and the Bible describes Jesus as that Word, the Living Word. John 1:3 tells us “Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”  Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God. Hard to comprehend, but true.

John goes on in verse 14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”  Let’s look at these words from that verse, “made his dwelling” in Hebrew it is one word. Tabernacles. Jesus, the Word became flesh and tabernacles among us. Not simply in the spirit, but in the flesh in the person of Jesus Christ. 

Colossians 1:15-17 “The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.”

The only way we can be held together in this fallen world is in Jesus Christ, the Savior of us all. The only way to face the future and the difficulties of life in a fallen world is through the power of His Son who has redeemed us and through His Holy Spirit who strengthens, guides and directs us.

Our God is an awesome God!

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Does God exist? The Bible has described this as a reality for thousands of years.  Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
    ⁃    There was a beginning
    ⁃    There is a God
    ⁃    God created everything

This is looked at as a religious belief, but it is increasingly a scientific fact as the scientific world sees that the creation had a beginning.
    ⁃    Natural knowledge of God
    ⁃    Nature – Romans 1:20 “For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
    ⁃    Teleological argument – “Design requires a designer.” It is obvious there is incredible design which requires a designer.  
    ⁃    DNA – “DNA is like a computer program but far, far more advanced than any software ever created.” Bill Gates.  “The coding regions of DNA have exactly the same relevant properties as a computer code or language. We know books and computer codes are designed by intelligence, and the presence of this type of information in DNA also implies an intelligent source.” Stephen C Meyer, PhD.   “What I think the DNA material has done is that it has shown, by the almost unbelievable complexity of the arrangements which are needed to produce life, that intelligence must have been involved in getting these extraordinarily diverse elements to work together.” Professor Anthony Flew.  There is a creator because DNA is so complex it requires a creator.
    ⁃    History – “I’m a lapsed atheist… I go to church every Sunday, precisely because having been brought up as an atheist I came to realize my career as a historian that not only is atheism a disastrous basis for a society… but also because I don’t think it can be a basis for individual ethical decision making”  Professor Sir Niall Ferguson.
    ⁃    Conscience – Romans 2:15 “They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.”  The conscience bears witness to a Creator, to a God who is:
    ⁃    Transcendent
    ⁃    Immaterial
    ⁃    Timeless
    ⁃    Powerful
    ⁃    Personal
    ⁃    Brilliant
    ⁃    Caring

To simply know that God exists is good, but to know God – that is what is necessary. And that requires that God reveals Himself to us – the revealed knowledge of God – showing Himself and drawing us to Himself.

    ⁃    Revealed Knowledge of God
    ⁃    Bible – profound unity of what it tells us. Read and listen to His Word and allow it to speak into our lives.
    ⁃    Jesus Christ – The Living Word – Savior, Redeemer, our only Hope. God is love and gave Himself for us all.  Forgiveness and new life.  John 1:18 “No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.” The Old and New Testaments testify to Jesus. He died, He rose and He is returning.
    ⁃    Holy Spirit – John 14:26 “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you.”

It is one thing to know that God exists but it is most important know God and to know to the Love of the Father through Jesus His Son and to walk in the power of the Holy Spirit who brings us to faith and who nourishes and guides us as we live a life of faith.

Now What? Learn about God at https://www.awakeusnow.com EVERYTHING we offer is FREE.

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Check out this episode!