Ephesians 5

Ephesians 5:1

5:1 God’s example of forgiveness in Eph_4:32 forms the basis of Paul’s exhortation here. The connection is this: God in Christ has forgiven you. Now be imitators of God in forgiving one another. A special motive is appended in the words, as dear children. In natural life, children bear the family likeness and should seek to uphold the family name. In spiritual life, we should manifest our Father to the world and seek to walk worthy of our dignity as His beloved children.5:2 Another way in which we should resemble the Lord is by walking in love. The rest of the verse explains that to walk in love means to give ourselves for others. This is what Christ, our perfect Example, did. Amazing fact! He loved us. The proof of His love is that He gave Himself for us in death at Calvary. His gift is described as an offering and a sacrifice to God. An offering is anything given to God; a sacrifice here includes the additional element of death. He was the true burnt offering, the One who was completely devoted to do the will of God, even to the death of the cross. His sacrifice of unspeakable devotion is eulogized as being for a sweet-smelling aroma. F. B. Meyer comments, In love so measureless, so reckless of cost, for those who were naturally so unworthy of it, there was a spectacle which filled heaven with fragrance and God’s heart with joy.The Lord Jesus pleased His Father by giving Himself for others. The moral is that we too can bring joy to God by giving ourselves for others. Others, Lord, yes, others! Let this my motto be; Help me to live for others That I may live like Thee. Charles D. Meigs 5:3 In verses 3 and 4 the apostle reverts to the topic of sexual sins and decisively calls for saintly separation from them. First, he mentions various forms of sexual immorality: Fornication. Whenever it is mentioned in the same verse as adultery, fornication means illicit intercourse among unmarried persons. However, when, as here, the word is not distinguished from adultery, it probably refers to any form of sexual immorality, and the NKJV usually so translates it. (Our word pornography, literally, whore-writing, is related to the word translated fornication.) Uncleanness. This too may mean immoral acts, but perhaps it can also include impure pictures, obscene books, and other suggestive materials that go along with lives of indecency and that feed the fires of passion. Covetousness. While we generally think of this as meaning the lust for money, here it refers to sensual desirethe insatiable greed to satisfy one’s sexual appetite outside the bounds of marriage. (See Exo_20:17 : You shall not covet … your neighbor’s wife. . . .) These things should not even be named among Christians. It goes without saying that they should never have to be named as having been committed by believers. They should not even be discussed in any way that might lessen their sinful and shameful character. There is always the greatest danger in speaking lightly of them, making excuses for them, or even discussing them familiarly and continually. Paul accents his exhortation with the phrase, as is fitting for saints. Believers have been separated from the corruption that is in the world; now they should live in practical separation from dark passion, both in deed and word. 5:4 Their speech should also be free from every trace of: Filthiness. This refers to dirty stories, suggestive jokes with a sexual coloring, and all forms of obscenity and indecency. Foolish talking. This means empty conversation that is worthy of a moron. Here it may include gutter language. Coarse jesting. This means jokes or talk with unsavory, hidden meanings. To talk about something, to joke about it, to make it a frequent subject of conversation is to introduce it into your mind, and to bring you closer to actually doing it. It is always dangerous to joke about sin. Instead of using his tongue for such unworthy and unbecoming talk, the Christian should deliberately cultivate the practice of expressing thanks to God for all the blessings and mercies of life. This is pleasing to the Lord, a good example to others, and beneficial to one’s own soul. 5:5 There is no room for doubt as to God’s attitude toward immoral persons: they have no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. This verdict is in sharp contrast to the world’s current attitude that sex offenders are sick and need psychiatric treatment. Men say immorality is a sickness; God calls it sin. Men condone it; God condemns it. Men say the answer is psychoanalysis; God says the answer is regeneration. Three offenders are specified, the same three found in verse 3the fornicator, the unclean person, and the covetous man. Here the thought is added that a covetous person is an idolater. One reason he is an idolater is that he has a false impression of what God is like: his concept of God is a Being who approves sensual greed, otherwise, he would not dare be covetous. Another reason why covetousness is idolatry is that it puts the person’s own will above the will of God. A third reason is that it results in the worship of the creature rather than the Creator (Rom_1:25). When Paul says that such persons have no inheritance in the kingdom, he means precisely that. People whose lives are characterized by these sins are lost, are in their sins, and are on the way to hell. They are not in the invisible kingdom at the present time; they will not be in the kingdom when Christ returns to reign; and they will be forever shut out from the everlasting kingdom in heaven. The apostle is not saying these are people who, though they are in the kingdom, will suffer loss at the Judgment Seat of Christ. The subject is salvation, not rewards. They may profess to be Christians, but they prove by their lives that they were never saved.

They can be saved, of course, by repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus. But if they are genuinely converted, they will no longer practice these sins. Notice that the deity of Christ is implied in the expression, the kingdom of Christ and God. Christ is put on an equal level with God the Father as Ruler in the kingdom.5:6 Many people of the world adopt an increasingly lenient and tolerant attitude toward sexual immorality. They say the gratification of bodily appetites is needful and beneficial, and that their repression produces warped, inhibited personalities. They say morals are entirely a matter of the culture in which we live, and that since pre-marital, extra-marital, and gay sex (which God’s word condemns as fornication, adultery, and perversion) are accepted in our culture, they ought to be legalized. Surprisingly enough, some of the leading spokesmen in favor of making sexual sins acceptable are men who hold high positions in the professing church. Thus, the laymen who always thought immorality was immoral are now being assured by prominent clergymen that such an attitude is passe9. Christians should not be hoodwinked by such double talk. Because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. The Lord’s attitude toward such sins as fornication and adultery was seen in Num_25:1-9 : twenty-four thousand Israelites were slain because they sinned with the women of Moab. The Lord’s attitude toward homosexuality was displayed when Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by brimstone and fire from heaven (Gen_19:24, Gen_19:28). But God’s wrath is displayed not only in such supernatural acts of punishment. Those who practice sexual sins experience His judgment in other ways. There are physical effects, such as venereal disease and AIDS. There are mental, nervous, and emotional disorders arising from a sense of guilt. There are changes in the personalitythe effeminate often becomes even more so (Rom_1:27). And of course there will be the final, eternal judgment of God on fornicators and adulterers (Heb_13:4). No mercy will be shown to sons of disobedience to those who are descended from disobedient Adam and who willfully follow him in disobeying God (Rev_21:8). 5:7 Believers are solemnly warned to have no part in such ungodly behavior. To do so is to dishonor the name of Christ, to wreck other lives, to ruin one’s own testimony, and to invite a torrent of retribution. 5:8 To enforce his urgent imperative in verse 7, the apostle now gives a pithy discourse on darkness and light (vv. 8-14). The Ephesians were once darkness, but now they are light in the Lord. Paul does not say they were in the darkness, but that they themselves were the personification of darkness. Now, through union with the Lord, they have become light. He is light; they are in Him; so now they are light in the Lord. Their state should henceforth correspond with their standing. They should walk as children of light. 5:9 This parenthesis explains the type of fruit produced by those who walk in the light. The fruit of the Spirit consists of all forms of goodness, righteousness, and truth. Goodness here is an inclusive term for all moral excellence. Righteousness means integrity in all dealings with God and men. Truth is honesty, equity, and reality. Put them all together and you have the light of a Christ-filled life shining out in a scene of dismal darkness. 5:10 Those who walk in the light not only produce the type of fruit listed in the preceding verse, but also find out what is acceptable to the Lord. They put every thought, word, and action to the test. What does the Lord think about this? How does it appear in His presence? Every area of life comes under the searchlightconversation, standard of living, clothes, books, business, pleasures, entertainments, furniture, friendships, vacations, cars, and sports. 5:11 Believers should have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, either by participation or by any attitude that might indicate tolerance or leniency. These works of darkness are unfruitful as far as God and men are concerned. It was this feature of utter barrenness that once prompted Paul to ask the Roman Christians, What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? (Rom_6:21). Then too they are works of darkness: they belong to the world of dim lights, drawn drapes, locked doors, secret rooms. They reflect man’s natural preference for darkness and his abhorrence of light when his deeds are evil (Joh_3:19). The believer is called not only to abstain from the unfruitful works of darkness, but positively he is called to expose them. He does this in two ways: first, by a life of holiness, and second, by words of correction spoken under the direction of the Holy Spirit. 5:12 Now the apostle explains why the Christian must have no complicity with moral corruption and must rebuke it. The vile sins which people commit in secret are so debased that it is shameful even to mention them, let alone commit them. The unnatural forms of sin which man has invented are so bad that even to describe them would defile the minds of those who listened. So the Christian is taught to refrain from even talking about them. 5:13 Light makes manifest whatever is in the darkness. So a holy Christian life reveals by contrast the sin fulness of unregenerate lives. And appropriate words of rebuke reveal sin in its true character also. Blaikie illustrates: As, for instance, when our Lord reproved the hypocrisy of the Phariseestheir practices had not seemed to the disciples very evil before, but when Christ threw on them the pure light of truth, they were made manifest in their true characterthey appeared and they still appear, odious. The latter part of verse 13 may better read: for whatever is made manifest is light. This simply means that when Christians exercise their ministry as light, others are brought to the light. Wicked men are transformed into children of light through the reproving ministry of light. It is not a rule without exceptions, of course. Not everyone who is exposed to the light becomes a Christian. But it is a general principle in the spiritual realm that light has a way of reproducing itself. We find an illustration of the principle in 1Pe_3:1, where believing wives are taught to win their unbelieving husbands to Christ by the example of their lives: Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives. Thus the light of Christian wives triumphs over the darkness of heathen husbands, and the latter become light. 5:14 The life of the believer should always be preaching a sermon, should always be exposing the surrounding darkness, should always be extending this invitation to unbelievers: Awake, you who sleep, Arise from the dead, And Christ will give you light.This is the voice of light speaking to those who are sleeping in darkness and lying in spiritual death. The light calls them to life and illumination. If they answer the invitation, Christ will shine on them and give them light.5:15 In the next seven verses, Paul contrasts foolish footsteps and careful conduct by a series of negative and positive exhortations. The first is a general plea to his readers to walk not as fools but as wise. As mentioned previously, walk, is one of the key words of the Epistle: it is mentioned seven times to describe the whole round of the activities of the individual life. To walk circumspectly is to live in the light of our position as God’s children. To walk as fools means to descend from this high plane to the conduct of worldly men. 5:16 The walk of wisdom calls us to redeem the time or buy up the opportunities. Every day brings its opened doors, its vast potential. Redeeming the time means living lives noted for holiness, deeds of mercy, and words of help. What lends special urgency to this matter is the evil character of the days in which we live. They remind us God will not always strive with man, the day of grace will soon close, the opportunities for worship, witness, and service on earth will soon be forever ended. 5:17 So we should not be unwise, but understand what the will of the Lord is. This is crucial. Because of the abounding evil and the shortness of the time, we might be tempted to spend our days in frantic and feverish activity of our own choosing. But this would amount to nothing but wasted energy. The important thing is to find out God’s will for us each day and do it. This is the only way to be efficient and effective. It is all too possible to carry on Christian work according to our own ideas and in our own strength, and be completely out of the will of the Lord. The path of wisdom is to discern God’s will for our individual lives, then to obey it to the hilt. 5:18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation. In our North American culture, such a command seems almost shocking and unnecessary, since total abstinence is the rule among so many Christians. But we must remember that the Bible was written for believers in all cultures, and in many countries wine is still a fairly common beverage on the table. The Scriptures do not condemn the use of wine, but they do condemn its abuse. The use of wine as a medicine is recommended (Pro_31:6; 1Ti_5:23). The Lord Jesus made wine for use as a beverage at the wedding in Cana of Galilee (Joh_2:1-11). But the use of wine becomes abuse under the following circumstances and is then forbidden:

1. When it leads to excess (Pro_23:29-35).
2. When it becomes habit-forming (1Co_6:12 b).
3. When it offends the weak conscience of another believer (Rom_14:13; 1Co_8:9).
4. When it hurts a Christian’s testimony in the community and is therefore not to the glory of God (1Co_10:31).
5. When there is any doubt in the Christian’s mind about it (Rom_14:23). Paul’s recommended alternative to being drunk with wine is being filled with the Spirit. This connection too may startle us at first, but when we compare and contrast the two states, we see why the apostle links them in this way. First, there are certain similarities:
6. In both conditions, the person is under a power outside himself. In one case it is the power of intoxicating liquor (sometimes called spirits); in the other case it is the power of the Spirit.
7. In both conditions, the person is fervent. On the Day of Pentecost, the fervency produced by the Spirit was mistaken for that produced by new wine (Act_2:13).
8. In both conditions, the person’s walk is affectedhis physical walk in the case of drunkenness and his moral behavior in the other instance. But there are two ways in which the two conditions present sharp contrasts:
9. In the case of drunkenness, there is dissipation and debauchery. The Spirit’s filling never produces these.
10. In the case of drunkenness, there is loss of self-control. But the fruit of the Spirit is self-control (Gal_5:23). A believer who is filled with the Spirit is never transported outside himself where he can no longer control his actions; the spirit of a prophet is always subject to the prophet (1Co_14:32). Sometimes in the Bible, the filling with the Spirit seems to be presented as a sovereign gift of God. For instance, John the Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit from his mother’s womb (Luk_1:15). In such a case, the person receives it without any prior conditions to be met. It is not something for which he works or prays; the Lord gives it as He pleases. Here in Eph_5:18 the believer is commanded to be filled with the Spirit. It involves action on his part. He must meet certain conditions. It is not automatic but the result of obedience. For this reason the Spirit’s filling should be distinguished from certain other of His ministries. It is not the same as any of the following functions:
11. The baptism by the Holy Spirit. This is the work of the Spirit which incorporates the believer in the body of Christ (1Co_12:13).
12. The indwelling. By this ministry the Comforter takes up His residence in the body of the Christian and empowers him for holiness, worship, and service (Joh_14:16).
13. The anointing. The Spirit Himself is the anointing who teaches the child of God the things of the Lord (1Jo_2:27).
14. The earnest and the seal. We have already seen that the Holy Spirit as the earnest guarantees the inheritance for the saint, and as the seal He guarantees the saint for the inheritance (Eph_1:13-14). These are some of the ministries of the Spirit which are realized in a person the moment he is saved. Everyone who is in Christ automatically has the baptism, the indwelling, the anointing, the earnest, and the seal. But the filling is different. It is not a once-for-all crisis experience in the life of a disciple; rather it is a continuous process. The literal translation of the command is Be being filled with the Spirit. It may begin as a crisis experience, but it must continue thereafter as a moment-by-moment process. Today’s filling will not do for tomorrow. And certainly it is a state greatly to be desired. In fact, it is the ideal condition of the believer on earth. It means that the Holy Spirit is having His way relatively ungrieved in the life of the Christian, and that the believer is therefore fulfilling his role in the plan of God for that time. How then can a believer be filled with the Spirit? The Apostle Paul does not tell us here in Ephesians; he merely commands us to be filled. But from other parts of the word, we know that in order to be filled with the Spirit we must:
15. Confess and put away all known sin in our lives (1Jo_1:5-9). It is obvious that such a holy Person cannot work freely in a life where sin is condoned.
16. Yield ourselves completely to His control (Rom_12:1-2). This involves the surrender of our will, our intellect, our body, our time, our talents, and our treasures. Every area of life must be thrown open to His dominion.
17. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly (Col_3:16). This involves reading the word, studying it, and obeying it. When the word of Christ dwells in us richly, the same results follow (Col_3:16) as follow the filling of the Spirit (Eph_5:19).
18. Finally, we must be emptied of self (Gal_2:20). To be filled with a new ingredient a cup must first be emptied of the old. To be filled with Him, we must first be emptied of us. An unknown author writes: Just as you have left the whole burden of your sin, and have rested on the finished work of Christ, so leave the whole burden of your life and service, and rest upon the present inworking of the Holy Spirit. Give yourself up, morning by morning, to be led by the Holy Spirit and go forth praising and at rest, leaving Him to manage you and your day. Cultivate the habit all through the day, of joyfully depending upon and obeying Him, expecting Him to guide, to enlighten, to reprove, to teach, to use, and to do in and with you what He wills. Count upon His working as a fact, altogether apart from sight or feeling. Only let us believe in and obey the Holy Spirit as the Ruler of our lives, and cease from the burden of trying to manage ourselves; then shall the fruit of the Spirit appear in us as He wills to the glory of God. Does a person know it when he is filled with the Spirit? Actually, the closer we are to the Lord, the more we are conscious of our own complete unworthiness and sinfulness (Isa_6:1-5). In His presence, we find nothing in ourselves to be proud of (Luk_5:8). We are not aware of any spiritual superiority over others, any sense of having arrived. The believer who is filled with the Spirit is occupied with Christ and not with self. At the same time, he may have a realization that God is working in and through his life. He sees things happen in a supernatural way. Circumstances click miraculously. Lives are touched for God. Events move according to a divine timetable. Even forces of nature are on his side; they seem chained to the chariot wheels of the Lord. He sees all this; he realizes that God is working for and through him; and yet he feels strangely detached from it all as far as taking any credit is concerned. In his inmost being, he realizes it is all of the Lord. 5:19 Now the apostle gives four results of being filled with the Spirit. First, Spirit-filled Christians speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. The divine infilling opens the mouth to talk about the things of the Lord, and enlarges the heart to share these things with others. While some see all three categories as parts of the Book of Psalms, we understand only psalms to mean the inspired writings of David, Asaph, and others. Hymns are noninspired songs which ascribe worship and praise directly to God. Spiritual songs are any other lyrical compositions dealing with spiritual themes, even though not addressed directly to God. A second evidence of the filling is inward joy and praise to God: singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. The Spirit-filled life is a fountain, bubbling over with joy (Act_13:52). Zacharias is an illustration: when he was filled with the Holy Spirit, he sang with all his heart to the Lord (Luk_1:67-79). 5:20 A third result is thanksgiving: giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Where the Spirit reigns, there is gratitude to God, a deep sense of appreciation, and a spontaneous expression of it. It is not occasional, but continual. Not only for the pleasant things, but for all things. Anyone can be thankful for sunshine; it takes the power of the Spirit to be thankful for the storms of life. The shortest, surest way to all happiness is this: Make it a rule to thank and praise God for everything that happens to you. For it is certain that whatever seeming calamity comes to you, if you thank and praise God for it, you turn it into a blessing. If you could work miracles, you could not do more for yourself than by this thankful spirit: for it needs not a word spoken and turns all that it touches into happiness. (Selected) 5:21 The fourth test of being Spirit-filled is submitting to one another in the fear of God. Erdman admonishes: It is a phrase too often neglected. … It names a test of spirituality which Christians too seldom apply. … Many persons feel that shouts of hallelujah and exulting songs and the utterance of praise in more or less unknown tongues are all proofs of being filled with the Spirit. These all may be spurious and deceitful and without meaning. Submission to our fellow Christians, modesty of demeanor, humility, unwillingness to dispute, forbearance, gentlenessthese are the unmistakable proofs of the Spirit’s power. . . .Such mutual submission to their fellow Christians should be rendered in the fear of Christ, that is, in reverence to him who is recognized as the Lord and Master of all. These then are four results of the Spirit’s fillingspeaking, singing, thanking, and submitting. But there are at least four others:
19. Boldness in rebuking sin (Act_13:9-12), and in testifying for the Lord (Act_4:8-12, Act_4:31; Acts 13:52-14:3).
20. Power for service (Act_1:8; Act_6:3, Act_6:8; Act_11:24).
21. Generosity, not selfishness (Act_4:31-32).
22. Exaltation of Christ (Act_9:17, Act_9:20) and of God (Act_2:4, Act_2:11; Act_10:44, Act_10:46). We should earnestly desire to be filled with the Spirit, but only for the glory of God, not for our own glory.

Ephesians 5:22

D. Appeal for Personal Piety in the Christian Household (5:22-6:9) 5:22 Though a new section begins here, there is a close link with the preceding verse. There Paul had listed subjection to one another as one of the results of the divine infilling. In the section from 5:22 to 6:9, he cites three specific areas in the Christian household where submission is the will of God: Wives should submit to their own husbands.Children should submit to their parents.Bondservants should submit to their masters.The fact that all believers are one in Christ Jesus does not mean that earthly relationships are abolished. We must still respect the various forms of authority and government which God has instituted. Every well-ordered society rests on two supporting pillarsauthority and submission. There must be some who exercise authority and some who submit to that rule. This principle is so basic that it is found even in the Godhead: But I want you to know that … the head of Christ is God (1Co_11:3). God ordained human government.

No matter how wicked a government may be, yet from God’s standpoint it is better than no government, and we should obey it as far as we can without disobeying or denying the Lord. The absence of government is anarchy, and no society can survive under anarchy. The same is true in the home. There must be a head, and there must be obedience to that head. God ordained that the place of headship be given to the man. He indicated this by creating man first, then creating woman for the man. Thus, both in the order and purpose of creation, He put man in the place of authority and woman in the place of submission. Submission never implies inferiority. The Lord Jesus is submissive to God the Father, but in no way is He inferior to Him. Neither is the woman inferior to the man. In many ways she may be superiorin devotedness, in sympathy, in diligence, and in heroic endurance. But wives are commanded to submit to their own husbands, as to the Lord. In submitting to the authority of her husband, a wife is submitting to the Lord’s authority. This in itself should remove any attitude of reluctance or rebellion. History abounds with illustrations of the chaos resulting from disobedience to God’s pattern. By usurping the place of leadership, and acting for her husband, Eve introduced sin into the human race, with all its catastrophic results. In more recent times many of the false cults were started by women who usurped a place of authority which God never intended them to have. Women who leave their God-appointed sphere can wreck a local church, break up a marriage, and destroy a home. On the other hand, there is nothing more attractive than a woman fulfilling the role which God has assigned to her. A full-length portrait of such a woman is given in Proverbs 31an enduring memorial to the wife and mother who pleases the Lord. 5:23 The reason for the wife’s submission is that her husband is her head. He occupies the same relation to her that Christ occupies to the church. Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. (The word Savior here can have the meaning of Preserver, as it has in 1Ti_4:10, JND). So the husband is head of the wife, and he is her preserver as well. As head he loves, leads, and guides; as preserver he provides, protects, and cares for her. We all know there is great revulsion against this teaching in our day. People accuse Paul of being a bigoted bachelor, a male chauvinist, a woman-hater. Or they say his views reflect the social customs of his day but are no longer applicable today. Such statements are, of course, a frontal attack on the inspiration of the Scriptures. These are not merely Paul’s words; they are the words of God. To refuse them is to refuse Him and invite difficulty and disaster. 5:24 Nothing could more exalt the role of the wife than comparing it to the role of the church as the Bride of Christ. The church’s submission is the pattern to be followed by the wife. She is to be subject in everythingthat is, everything that is in accordance with the will of God. No wife would be expected to obey her husband if he required her to compromise her loyalty to the Lord Jesus. But in all the normal relationships of life, she is to obey her husband, even if he is an unbeliever. 5:25 If the foregoing instructions to wives stood alone, if there were no correspondingly high instructions to husbands, then the presentation would be one-sided, if not unfair. But notice the beautiful balance of truth in the Scriptures, and the corresponding standard they require of the husbands. Husbands are not told to keep their wives in subjection; they are told to love their wives just as Christ also loved the church. It has been well said that no wife would mind being submissive to a husband who loves her as much as Christ loves the church. Someone wrote of a man who feared he was displeasing God by loving his wife too much. A Christian worker asked him if he loved her more than Christ loved the church.

He said no. Only when you go beyond that, said the worker, are you loving your wife too much. Christ’s love for the church is presented here in three majestic movements extending from the past to the present to the future. In the past, He demonstrated His love for the church by giving Himself for her. This refers to His sacrificial death on the cross. There He paid the greatest price in order to purchase a Bride for Himself.

Just as Eve was brought forth from the side of Adam, so, in a sense, the church was created from the wounded side of the Savior. 5:26 At the present time His love for the church is shown in His work of sanctification: that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word. To sanctify means to set apart. Positionally the church is already sanctified; practically she is being set apart day by day. She is going through a process of moral and spiritual preparation, similar to the one-year course of beauty culture which Esther took before being presented to King Ahasuerus (Est. 2:12-16). The process of sanctification is carried on by the washing of water by the word. In simple terms this means that the lives of believers are cleansed as they hear the words of Christ and obey them.

Thus Jesus said to the disciples, You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you (Joh_15:3). And He linked sanctification with the word in His high priestly prayer: Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (Joh_17:17). Just as the blood of Christ cleanses once for all from the guilt and penalty of sin, so the word of God cleanses continually from the defilement and pollution of sin. This passage teaches that the church is being bathed at the present time, not with literal water, but with the cleansing agent of the word of God. 5:27 In the past, Christ’s love was manifested in our redemption. In the present, it is seen in our sanctification. In the future, it will be displayed in our glorification. He Himself will present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but … holy and without blemish. She will then reach the acme of beauty and spiritual perfection. A. T. Pierson rightly can exclaim: Think of itwhen the omniscient eye looks upon us at the last, He will not find anything that to His immaculate holiness can be so much as a pimple or a mole on a human face. How incredible! F. W. Grant concurs: No sign of old age about it, no defect; nothing will suit Him then but the bloom and eternity of an eternal youth, the freshness of affections which will never tire, which can know no decay. The Church will be holy and blameless then. After all that we have known of her history, it would be strange to read that, if we did not know how gloriously God maintains His triumph over sin and evil. 5:28 After soaring off on this magnificent rhapsody dealing with Christ’s love for the church, Paul now returns to remind husbands that this is the pattern they are to imitate: So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. In imitation of Christ’s love, they should love their own wives as being indeed their own bodies. In the Greek, the word own occurs six times in verses 22-33. This emphatic use of the word own reminds us that monogamy is God’s will for His people. Although He permitted polygamy in the OT, He never approved it. It is also interesting to notice the varied ways in which Paul describes the close relationship of the husband and the wife. He says that in loving his wife, a man is loving his own body (v. 28a); himself (vv. 28b, 33); and his own flesh (v. 29). Since marriage involves a true union of persons, and two become one flesh, a man who loves his wife is, in a very real sense, loving himself.5:29 Man is born with the instinct to care for his own body. He feeds, clothes, and bathes it; he protects it from discomforts, pain, and harm. Its continued survival depends on this care. This solicitous interest is a pale shadow of the care the Lord has for the church.5:30 For we are members of His body.

The grace of God is amazing! It not only saves us from sin and hell, but incorporates us into Christ as members of His mystical Body. What volumes this speaks concerning His love for us: He cherishes us as His own Body. What care: He nourishes, sanctifies, and trains us. What security: He will not be in heaven without His members. We are united to Him in a common life.

Whatever affects the members affects the Head also. 5:31 The apostle now quotes Gen_2:24 as presenting God’s original concept in instituting the marriage relationship. First, the man’s relationship to his parents is superseded by a higher loyalty, that is, his loyalty to his wife. In order to realize the high ideal of the marital relationship, he leaves his parents and is joined to his wife. The second feature is that husband and wife become one flesh: there is a real union of two persons. If these two basic facts were kept in mind, they would eliminate in-law troubles on the one hand, and marital strife on the other. 5:32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Paul now climaxes his discussion of the marriage relationship by announcing this wonderful truth, hitherto unknown, namely, that as a wife is to her husband, so the church is to Christ. When Paul says the mystery is great, he does not mean it is very mysterious. Rather he means that the implications of the truth are tremendous. The mystery is the wonderful purpose which was hidden in God in previous ages, but which has now been revealed. That purpose is to call out of the nations a people to become the Body and Bride of His glorious Son. The marriage relationship thus finds its perfect antitype in the relation between Christ and the church. One spirit with the Lord: Jesus, the glorified, Esteems the church for which He bled, His body and His bride. Mary Bowley Peters 5:33 This final verse is a sentence summary of what the apostle has been saying to husbands and wives. To the husbands the concluding admonition is this: let each one of you, without exception, love his wife as being himself. Not merely as you might love yourself, but in recognition of the fact that she is one with you. To the wives the word is: see that you continually respect and obey your husband. Now stop and think for a moment! What would happen if these divine instructions were widely followed by Christian people today? The answer is obvious. There would be no strife, no separation, no divorce. Our homes would be more like foretastes of heaven than they often are.