The Last Time We Met… Last Sunday’s Discovery Bible Study (DBS) was a look at Eph. 5:22-33 from the perspective of what the passage has to say about the Church (as opposed to husbands and wives). As DBS groups multiply into a Disciple Making Movement (DMM) churches will inevitably and spontaneously form. A proper understanding of the local and universal church is therefore important. The passage depicts God (revealed here as “Christ the Lord”; vv. 22, 24) as loving the Church, giving Himself for the Church, sanctifying the Church, and ultimately presenting the Church to Himself. As “Savior” (v. 23) and “Lord” He is vitally interested in relationship with His people. The purpose of this relationship is to “sanctify” His bride (v. 26); elsewhere this word refers to believers becoming conformed to Christ’s image (4:24; Rom. 8:29). God both initiates and completes our sanctification, making the Church “holy and without blemish” (cf. 1:4) through the ministry of the Word (cf. 4:11f.). As part of His plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth 1:10) Christ intends to “present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing”(vv. 26-27; cf. 1:8-9). Working to this end He nourishes and cherishes… the Church out of a love which takes no thought of self (vv. 28-30). In the mystery of divine initiative and human responsibility we have our part to do in this relationship. Loving His bride as He does, Christ expects the Church to “submit to Him in everything” (v. 24), joyfully receiving the purifying benefits of the Savior’s attention and care. But this is anything but passive, as the rest of the letter makes clear. Throughout the discussion participants’ thinking kept returning to the matter of marriage. This isn’t surprising. Paul is speaking primarily of the marriage relationship in this passage and that is how it is typically studied. Yet the union of a husband and wife reflects the “mystery of Christ and the church” (v. 32). In the midst of this discussion the question was asked: What is the relationship between the devaluing of marriage in our society and the diminishment of Christ’s authority in the visible Church? This much was apparent: failing marriages among Christians weaken the Church and its witness to the world. In response to what we learned in studying this passage together we made following commitments: 1) I will try to love my husband as Christ loves the Church. 2) I will reflect further on the Church’s obligations to Christ in the relationship described in this passage. 3) I will look to see how Paul’s counsel applies to me regarding my relationship to this church. 4) I will pray that the Lord would reveal how I failed to love my former wife, and the results of that lack of love. 5) I will ask God to reveal to me the ways in which I have failed to submit to Christ. This Sunday we will return to formal instruction on the Beatitudes (Matt. 5:3-12), praying that the Lord will give us insight with an eye to obedience and not merely learning. All who are “poor in spirit” (v. 3) are welcome to join us at 10am to have their “hunger and thirst for righteousness…satisfied” (v. 6) as we worship together.
Posted on: Thu, 14 Nov 2013 19:04:29 +0000
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