The Language of Love
Thank you for joining us as we continue to dig into our Keeping it Real series on Ephesians.
To dig deeper,
Read Ephesians 5.
Here’s the big 10,000-metre-high snapshot of what Paul is saying in the first half of Ephesians chapter 5. We were made for love, to give love and receive love What kind of love? Christ-like, cross-shaped, sacrificial love. Therefore, we are to disentangle ourselves from anything that violates this love. Things like; unwholesome talk, sexual immorality, and greed, which is the relentless drive to need more. We are to disengage from acts that destroy community and engage in acts that build community. Paul wants us to come to the conclusion that this kind of life is impossible without being filled, and continually filled with the Spirit. One commentator phrases it this way, “let the Holy Spirit fill you”. It's about surrender, letting the Spirit permeate into every part of your life. Paul doesn’t change the subject in chapter 5 but he does set aside the theology to get practical.
Christ’s death and resurrection changed everything and this means something. It means something to our relationships with each other, to our marriages, our households and how we relate in the workplace. Paul takes what we have learnt so far in chapters 1 through 4 about salvation, the gospel, the love of Christ and being spirit-filled; now he will map it out onto our vision of marriage. Paul is going to address the differences between how the genders practice mutual submission, and we can’t ignore that. But, whatever comes next, in verses 22-33 has to be understood and framed by verse 21, “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ”. Marriage then is about spirit-filled mutual submission. It's not an issue of whether or not women should submit to men, it's an issue of both men and women learning to submit to one another in marriage.
The challenge that we have in our culture is that nobody views marriage as the giving up of my own rights for the sake of the other. Rather, marriage in our culture is about getting my needs met. Marriage in our world is not based on self-denial, but self-fulfilment. But Paul is saying, marriage only “works” to the degree that it embodies the pattern of God’s self-giving love in Christ. Mutual fulfilment through mutual sacrifice. Paul concludes chapter 5 with a powerful revelation. The point of marriage is ultimately not to point to each other, it's to point to Jesus. This is the secret—that the gospel of Jesus and marriage explain one another.
REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Reflect upon the kind of acts that you have engaged in this week. Which ones are community building and which ones are community destroying? Is there anything that God is asking you to disentangle yourself from so that you may have greater freedom to walk in love?
2. Looking at this chapter, what does Paul see being filled with the Spirit leads to?
3. If you are a husband, what is something you can do today to that releases her into her redemptive fullness? If you are a wife, what is something you can do today to show honour and adoration to your husband?
Thanks again for joining us. We pray you were blessed.
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