EPHESIANS: ETERNALLY ENCLOSED IN GOD’S PLAN

Part XVII: The Filling Of The Spirit And Marital Relationships

(Ephesians 5:18-21, 22-33)

I. Introduction

A. Paul wrote Ephesians to encourage believers of God’s work to edify the Church regardless what happened to him in his imprisonment (Ryrie St. Bible, KJV, 1978, p. 1672: “Intro. to the Letter of Paul to the Ephesians”).

B. Ephesians 5:18-21, 22-33 teaches the practice of believers’ being filled with the Holy Spirit for blessing in one’s marital relationships, and we view the passage for our insight, application and edification (as follows):

II. The Filling Of The Spirit And Marital Relationships, Ephesians 5:18-21, 22-33.

A. Though Ephesians 5:22 KJV directs wives to “submit” themselves unto their own husbands, the verb “submit” does not appear in the Greek text in verse 22 but is borrowed from verse 21 (U. B. S. Grk. N. T., 1966, p. 676; Bible Know. Com., N. T., p. 640). Furthermore, since “submit” in Ephesians 5:21 is in the participle form (hupotassomenoi, U. B. S. Grk. N. T., loc. cit.), it modifies the main verb “be filled (with the Spirit)” back in Ephesians 5:18, meaning the filling of the Holy Spirit is the means by which a wife “submits” to her husband!

B. It logically follows that not only the wife’s role of submitting to her husband, but also the husband’s role of rightly relating to his wife involves the filling of the Holy Spirit, making the entire section of Ephesians 5:22-33 on marital relationships a section on the influence of the Holy Spirit’s power in believers’ marriages!

1. Accordingly, we view God’s directives for wives under the Holy Spirit’s filling in Ephesians 5:22-24, 33b:

a. By relying on the Holy Spirit, wives are to submit themselves unto their own husbands as an act of obedience to the Lord Who is over both the wife and her husband, Ephesians 5:22.

b. The pattern for believers’ marital relationships is set by the example of Christ and the Church, for the husband is his wife’s head even as Christ is the head of the Church and its Savior, Ephesians 5:23.

c. Thus, the wife by the Holy Spirit’s control should submit to her husband in “everything” (Ephesians 5:24), what in practical terms is limited by 2 Timothy 3:1-9 if the husband (apart from the Spirit’s filling) tries to abuse his wife so that she must withdraw from that abuse as 2 Timothy 3:5b requires. This call to withdraw from the abuse does not mean a wife is to divorce her husband, for Mark 10:1-12 prohibited divorce, but God does not want a wife to expose herself to abuse even if she must live out of harm’s reach.

d. In summary for Christian wives, Paul in Ephesians 5:33b directed a believing wife to respect her husband.

2. We also view God’s directives for husbands under the Holy Spirit’s filling in Ephesians 5:25-33a:

a. By relying on the Holy Spirit, husbands are to love their wives self-sacrificially, even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her welfare by His substitutionary death on the cross, Ephesians 5:25.

b. That gift involved Christ’s making it possible for His spiritual Bride, the Church, to be sanctified and cleansed with the washing of the water by God’s Word that He might present her to Himself as a glorious Church, not having any ungodliness, but that she might be holy and without blemish, Ephesians 5:26-27.

c. Husbands should thus love their wives as their own bodies, for he who loves his wife loves himself since God declared that in marriage, man and wife are “one flesh,” Ephesians 5:28 with Genesis 2:24.

d. No man ever hated his own body but nourished and loved it even as the Lord Jesus loves and nourishes the Church, for we believers are members of Christ’s spiritual body, Ephesians 5:29-30.

e. At Ephesians 5:31, Paul cited Genesis 2:24 in the Greek translation of the Old Testament in his day known as the Septuagint, revealing the great spiritual mystery where Christ and the Church are “one flesh” as are a husband and a wife in marriage (Ephesians 5:32; U. B. S. Grk. N. T., op. cit., p. 677).

f. Thus, every husband is to love his wife as he loves himself, Ephesians 5:33a.

Lesson: Married believers are to view their marital relationships as patterned after the relationship of Jesus Christ, the Church’s spiritual Bridegroom, with the Church, His spiritual Bride. Since Christ is the Head of the Church, so a wife is to view herself as subject to her husband as her head in all things (the exception being if the husband tries to abuse his wife where Paul’s directive at 2 Timothy 3:1-9 applies). Thus, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies, loving them self-sacrificially as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her welfare.

Application: (1) May believing husbands and wives rely on the Holy Spirit to relate to each other after the pattern of the relationship between Christ and the Church. (2) If one spouse in a marriage functions in the sin nature (either as a carnal believer or as an unsaved spouse), the other spouse must still function by the Spirit’s power, for doing so will have a sanctifying influence on the carnal spouse and their children (1 Corinthians 7:14 ESV).