DUTIES OF HUSBANDS – 8 COMMANDS VS.19 - EPHESIANS 5:22-33
• Be head of wife v.23
o Think biblically in the home…with regard to finances, loving – everything. Wives are created to be a ‘help-fit’—wives are fitted to help their husbands.
• Love wife as Christ loved the church v.25
o Consciously put the wife first…die to ‘self.’
• Love wife as own body v.28,33
o Just as you care for your body’s needs, care for your wife’s needs.
• Nourish (bring up, care for, protect) v.29; 6;4; I Peter 3:6,7
o Treat wives as ‘fine china’ not melamac or disposable plates.
• Cherish (to foster or warm in one’s bosom)
o Encourage. Embrace…physically affectionate.
• Be joined as one flesh vs.30-31
o Woman was taken from the flesh of man…and given back to become One. Marriage is to create a One-ness of mind & heart…of plans & purposes.
• Leave Parents for your wife v.31
o Emotionally join to your wife…the daily habits & ways of doing things in the parental home may not be ‘what works’ in your marriage.
• Cleave to your wife (Matthew 19:9)
o Build up your wife; build your home with your wife.
DUTIES OF WIVES- 4 COMMANDS FOR WIVES - EPHESIANS 5:22-33
• Submit to husband as to Christ v.22
o Submission is not slavery; it is loving cooperation w/husband that recognizes the leadership responsibility God has given to men.
• Recognize headship of husband v.23
o Just as the body needs a head…and the head a body, so does a marriage union.
o Husbands are the covering of the home; the roof of the house. Don’t rip off shingles and tear holes in their soul.
• Be subject to own husband v.24
• Reverence husband (reverence involves sacrificial obedience/die to self!) v.33
o Love (caretaking, giving time/attention) comes naturally to women…respect is more difficult but commanded (and needed).
o Respect his: burdens, worries, needs, convictions, perspectives, fears, sacrifices, relationship with God—and God’s work in your husband
• Qualifications to the command “submit in everything” 5:24-33
o Her God and her soul must come first (Matt. 22:37, 38; Luke 14:26, 27; I Cor.. 7:10-16)
