Sharper Iron — One Lord, One, Faith, One Baptism – Ephesians 5:22-33: The Bride and the Bridegroom

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As St. Paul encourages Christians to live in the order that God has given, he gives a table of duties. Beginning with the way wives and husbands act toward each other, the Apostle not only gives instruction for Christian living, but he proclaims the Gospel in the way Christ has acted as Bridegroom for His Bride, the Church. Wives are to submit to their husbands as the Church submits to Christ. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the Church. In saying this, St. Paul expounds upon the mystery of what Jesus has done for His Bride, washing her clean in Holy Baptism to present her as blameless before Him. The way that husbands and wives live together in Christ provides a glimpse of this reality of Christ and His Church.

Rev. Mark Barz, pastor at Crown of Life Lutheran Church in San Antonio, TX, joins host Rev. Timothy Appel to study Ephesians 5:22-33.

“One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism” is a series on Sharper Iron that goes through the epistle to the Ephesians. St. Paul highlights the salvation that God has given to His whole Church by His grace through faith. Because God has given His people this new life in Holy Baptism, we live in thanksgiving to Him as members of one body.

Sharper Iron, hosted by Rev. Timothy Appel, looks at the text of Holy Scripture both in its broad context and its narrow detail, all for the sake of proclaiming Christ crucified and risen for sinners. Two pastors engage with God’s Word to sharpen not only their own faith and knowledge, but the faith and knowledge of all who listen.

Sharper Iron is underwritten by Lutheran Church Extension Fund, where your investments help support the work of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod. Visit lcef.org.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Wives and Husbands

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

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a] 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

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Footnotes

Ephesians 5:27 Or holy and blameless