Husband as the loving head, Eph, 5:21-24
Ephesians 5:21-24 · Vern Peterman · Jul 24, 2005
Ephesians & Colossians, No. 74
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4826233063687

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Good morning. We're going to have a really cool time here, you know, and that's probably a relief to a lot of you to hear. One of the things that we want to kind of catch us up to speed on, we have been going for those of you who might be visiting with us for the first time or have short memories. We've been going through Ephesians and Colossians for about the last year and a half, going through it at a little bit at a time. And last week, we made some points about particular details in the Greek texts of Ephesians 5, 21 through 24 that kind of fit into the flow of things.

So what you have here is a slight variation from the new American standard here, and it's to convey the idea of being subject to one another rather than an explicit statement of command there. And then, instead of having verse 22 as a separate verse and separate sentence, it's really an ongoing flow.

So, comma, wives to your own husbands. So it doesn't have the explicit statement in the Greek of wives must be subject, okay? It's an ongoing thought that he's carrying over. What is he doing? He has said here, in being subject to one another, now, here is what that looks like. Here's the explicit statement of how that being subject looks like in the church body. Okay.

We'll be spending six weeks. We've are now in the second week of six weeks on God's design for marriage. And so this is the passage we're looking at here. We'll continue on with that for the next few weeks here until we do the last week. We'll take a little purposeful detour into first Peter. Now, it looks like this. Here's the passage we're looking at.

You don't need to memorize it all at once. Just take your time, all right? We'll be stepping through it today here on this passage, and then in the next few weeks, stepping through the remaining quarters, if you will, looking at the rest of the passage.

One of the things just to note here, those items on the top and the bottom that are addressed explicitly and mainly to the wife, are shown here, and your handout is not in color, but it's in italics. And then to the husband is the bulk of this message, and that's shown here in color, non-italics, and in red.

That's kind of the focus. So, bottom line, most of this passage is focused upon the husbands. Doesn't mean the ladies can go to sleep, but the husbands are the ones who get the bulk of the communication here. The wives will get the message from this morning's passage directed mainly to them.

We'll also be going at the end to 1 Peter 3, 1 through 7, and that has a, I call it a counterbalancing pattern in that the passage in Ephesians is mostly to the husbands. 1 Peter is the other way around. There's seven verses, six of them are to the wife. Husbands are the focus of the seventh verse, okay?

So it's an interesting kind of counterbalance between the two. Now, we also mentioned last week that noticing that men and women are different, men being more like this and women being more like this, okay? And so we want to keep that in front of you. We also kind of gave a typical shopping pattern as another for instance, so that people kept things clear. And as we make that, what we observe is, of course, both interesting and humorous.

But the real question is, what has God revealed? We notice all sorts of things, but it doesn't seem to resolve the conflict. The battle of the sexes, as it's termed, is something that has gone on and seems to continue to go on in the world. We don't want to look at the world for the example. We want to look at what does God say? What did God intend? because after all, he started before man fell and said, let's make them male and female.

One of the things we pointed out last week too, as we looked at this, the command starts off in the passage we looked at a couple of weeks ago, you must be filled. The other things that follow from it, the verbs, the speaking, the singing, making melody and giving thanks and being subject, are things that follow on from that imperative there in verse 18. And the ongoing behavior that he spells out in these subsequent verbs are the things that are an outflowing consequence of being filled with the Spirit, being filled with Christ by means of the Spirit. And we also pointed this out in the big picture, when he says, and be subject to, he's really starting out something that doesn't quit until we get into chapter 6, verse 9, because he talks first about the relationship husband and wife, then he talks about parents and children, and then he talks about slaves and masters. And what's interesting, he doesn't just say, and be a subject to one another, next subject. He says, and be subject to one another, and then he goes immediately into explanation. What does that look like? Because the statement by itself without explanation can be easily confused and misunderstood. And that's one of the reasons we're taking the time with it this morning and then the weeks ahead.

That word be subject to is hupotaso, okay? It's to underset or literally to set under. It's translated often subject to, as we see here, or submit to. There's this one that is used with children and slaves, hupakuo, which means to listen under, and we'll talk more about what that means there. It's often translated to obey or be obedient, but it means more than that. First, it starts off with listening, okay, to listen under.

Now, we've focused on, you know, this is generally directed to the husband, this is generally directed to the wives, but one of the things that we want to point out, even those sections that are more generally directed to the husband, and to the wife also have in them a significant portion of focus on Christ and the Church.

It's one of the points we made last week that as we look at this passage, if you're not in a position where you're married, if you're not in a position where you anticipate being married, then one of the things you can draw from this is what's the relationship between Christ and the Church like? He spells that out more here than in a number of passages. So there's great value in this even if you're not in that particular mode.

All right. Now, it's this middle subject here, to the husbands, that we'll be focusing on after a time. Because, as we mentioned last week, there are four kinds of love expressed for the husband to the wife. Four kinds. And you have that also in your handout. If you're joining us here, take a look at the page number down here at the corner. That's the page number in your handout.

And so we have those four kinds. Remember I mentioned, guys, what you can do is get your fingers out and you write, there's four places where it says Agapao, okay? Love, love, love, love. Agapao, the wives. And then there are four kinds of love. A sacrificial love, a sanctifying love, a caring love, and a bonded love. So you can have all your fingers busy. At least a lot of things written on them, okay? Alright. Now, have you noticed what's not in here? Have you noticed that? Have you? Okay, well let's take a look.

One of the things, the directions to the wife are really actually quite brief and simple. It's not terribly complex, but one of the things that it points out there, the wife being subject to the husband, is one of the outcomes of being filled with Christ by means of the Spirit.

And how does he do it? What's interesting is that he doesn't actually come out and say in the Greek, wives, you've got to be subject to your husbands. What he does is he keeps coming at it by implication. He keeps coming at it with subtlety. Now, isn't that good, ladies? He addresses you with subtlety. But he does it twice.

Be subject to one another, wives to your husbands. And then what does he do? He says, as the church is subject to Christ, and the husband is the head of the wife, so wives to their husbands. That's the way he spells it out here. Subtlety. The relationship between Christ and the church is ever, as we'll see through this passage, the model for the relationship between husband and wife. is the way we've drawn it simply here in order to get the message across. The husband is to the wife as Christ is to the church.

And that's what he's spelled out here in this passage as well. The majority of the instruction in this passage is delivered to the husband, but notice while there are imperatives to the husbands, he says once to the husbands as a group, love your wives with an imperative. He even gets the last time he says it, It's like he's grabbing them by the lapels and saying, husbands, each and every single one of you, yeah, I mean you, the one I'm staring at right now, love your wives, each individual one. So he makes it very explicit. What he does not do, in spite of being emphatic and multiply clear, he does not say, make sure you force your wives to be subject to you. Isn't that interesting? He delivers a subtle but duplicate message to the wives, to be subject to their husbands. To the husbands, he's very explicit, but one of those things is not to force her to be subject to him. Some of you might recall this song. For some of you, it might be a little while back. For some of you, it might be too recent. This song came out, Helen Reddy did it, the year Nancy and I got engaged. Great start, let me tell you.

But one of the things I noticed that's interesting about this here, you see there's a lot of, I've heard it all before, you see there's a lot of mention, even at the start of the chorus there, it's wisdom born of pain. Yes, I paid the price. A lot of what you see coming out of this, and this was sort of a theme song for a lot of the feminist movement, a lot of what you see coming out of this is reaction to the husband being an ogre. A lot of pain and agony.

And so the response is, I don't want that! And you know what? They're right. It doesn't mean that the overall reaction is in the right direction. But it's got a message. And what Paul is trying to lay out here is, look, rather than this abuse or neglect and then counter-reaction from that, let's take a look at what God had in mind in the first place. That's what he's laying out here.

Okay, let's do that. You see, marriage isn't like wrestling. You do this move and I'll do that move, and eventually let's see who gets pinned. God does not give points for pinning your partner. It doesn't work that way. Locking horns wasn't exactly what God had in mind. And neither is this God's idea of seeing eye to eye, okay? All right? It's not God's intent. And by the way, I had to work the moose in somewhere. Okay.

What the Lord is telling the wife to be subject to is something that He describes there in great detail, because the real issue is not the wife being subject to, in that that's fairly simple. The real issue is getting through to the guys, what does that love look like that the wife is to be subject to? So he's going to spend more time as we go through this detailing what that looks like.

Agapao, it's interesting, he doesn't just say agape, the noun, he uses the verb. He says, I don't care what title you got, I don't care what role you got, I'm the big kahuna husband, I'm the big mucky, boss of the house. He says, I want to see love in action. So he uses the verb four times. He says, I'm not worried about titles or who you think you are or what size of your belt is or anything else. He says, I want to see love in action. That's what I'm interested in.

This is unconditional love. This is love. God is the source of it, not ourselves. It is not our best efforts to love our wives. I call it a multi-faceted love of the Savior. That gives it some jewel and gemstone type implication, right? A multi-faceted love of the Savior. It is the life of Christ in and through the husband that he's looking for. It is by God's doing, not our best efforts.

One of the things we pointed out last time is exactly what Paul is asking for is impossible. So if you think you're going to do it, forget it. Or go ahead and try. You'll find out. It can't be done in human terms. All right. Some key words here that pop out. This word agapau, we've introduced it. Loving with a love that is self-sacrificial in nature. And Paul describes that. He doesn't let them assume it, does he? God is the source of it, and it seeks the benefit of the other without anything in return.

I am not going to love her because she doesn't. I'll love her when she... You see that? That's not this. That says, I will love you if. I will love you under these conditions. Is that this kind of love? No. This is the kind of love that says, I will love you and if and when and the conditions don't even come into the equation. Not even a part of it.

See, our own culture has an idea of what love is. Our own culture has this idea We have this idea of falling in love. It's kind of like people are afraid that I'm going to do off this front here all the time. We fall in love like it's some sort of an accident. And then the problem is that we fall out. The problem is that people fall in and they fall out and the whole thing is an accident. Matter of fact, it looks like it. And that's not what he has in mind.

This is a different kind of love that doesn't say if, and it doesn't say when, and it doesn't say, here's the condition under which, or when I get around to it. This is the kind of love that is one that we can't come up with. It's Christ's love. Christ's love for the church is the pattern, but we're not just in an acting job. The husbands are not just in that mode. Christ's life is what is behind what is spelled out in this word.

Now, one of the things we'll see as we go through this passage, that Paul is also repeating himself some more again too as well. Okay? What do we mean by that? He not only describes the four kinds of love, but he uses this word agapolo four times in the passage, first and the last ones being imperatives. They are demonstrated by Christ in the middle too.

So, it is a logical imperative, so the question is, do I have to? When I come home from work, I'm tired, and I just want to sit down, right? No. This is not an, I have to, like the Lord's going to come shooting from the sky with a thunderbolt. It is instead an imperative that is a logical imperative based on who you are in Christ and the logic he's set up with the relationship between the husband and wife is as between Christ and the church. That's the sole conclusion that you can arrive at. It is the sole conclusion that you can reach. The husband is based on those two points of assumption in logic.

The husband is to love his wife unconditionally. It's not something he's supposed to do. It's the Lord doing it. It's not something he's supposed to concoct. Because believe me, when the guys first read this, who lived in Ephesus, they were absolutely shocked and stunned. What is he asking for? We just don't do that in this culture. Well, guess what? We don't do it in this culture either. here in America in the year 2005. We don't. He's not asking us to do what comes naturally. This is what is supernatural.

Everything that Paul lays out in this passage is positive. There are a couple of brief negative statements there. We'll take a look at those when we get there. But Paul, what's the focus here on the husband explaining what that Agapao love looks like? This unconditional love in action. So some might ask the question, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, Vern, Vern, you didn't mention something. Isn't the wife supposed to love too? Yeah. See, you can see the guy, he's pointing the fingers, two of them. Her, her, she's supposed to love too. And she's saying, ahem. Now, what's going on here?

All of Paul's expressions to love are directed to the husband. All of them. Not a single one the other way. If you look at Colossians, all this whole passage is boiled down to husbands love your wives. That's it. That's the direction to the husbands. Here he spells out in detail what that means. Why aren't they directed to the wife as well? Why don't they say husbands love your wives, wives love your husbands. There. Golden rule. Let's go on to the next subject. Why not? There's a reason for that. Remember, you have husbands are to wives, as Christ is to the church. That's the way it's spelled out here.

So, let's take the principle coming out of 1 John 4.19. We love Agapoligan because he first loved us. Ah, what does that look like?

So the relationship, husbands to wife, as Christ is to the church, looks like this. The husband is to love the wife unconditionally since he is the living illustration, the living out in daily life of the love of Christ. Her submission to this continuing loving leadership on the part of the husband results in her loving him in response to his love. The way that the Lord set it up and spelled it out is, husbands, you must love your wives, you must love your wives, you must love your wives, and you must love your wives because the husband is the initiator of that love.

The wife is to respond. Okay? That's the point. Let's take a look at it. This simple verse, 1 John 4, 19, we the church, with responsive love, love because Christ, The husband is the initiator of that love. Here's the way it looks diagrammatically. The Lord loves the husband. The husband responds in love to the Lord.

We love because he first loved. We love because he first loved. We love because he first loved. We love because he first loved. We love because he first loved. We love because he first loved. We love because he first loved. the wife is in the same responsive mode to the Lord's love. Between the two of them, the husband is to love the wife, and the wife loves in response. That's the pattern that he set up here.

Now, we want to dive into the details of the passage. You ready? Alright, get your snorkels and scuba gear on, and let's do that. Alright. In being subject to, or is subject to there, is the hupotasso, to set under, to submit. We translated that. So, is this what hupotasso means? Not exactly. Okay. That's hanging in there, but that's not what hupotasso means. Hupotasso is this idea, it's subject to, it's given as an imperative only indirectly.

You might make note of that. It's given as an imperative indirectly It's implied by the relationship between Christ and the Church. The believing wife is to submit herself to the husband as the Church is to submit herself to Christ, okay? Since our, as a Church, since our sharing of Christ's glory is a part of our relationship with Him, the husband's leadership Loving leadership of the wife is not to put her down under his thumb.

It is also an exalted position. It's an exalted position, because it's the relationship between Christ and the Church. So, that's not what hupotasso means. You don't want to go and take your wife to the wall. Here's the way this verse comes across. For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church. He, Savior of the body. When the definite article is not there, the focus is on character. He is by character Savior of the body, but the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives, to husbands, and everything. That's the way it comes across if you kind of trim up the English to match the Greek there.

Now, what does that look like? In the same way we had this diagram about love and response, now we have the Lord Jesus Christ is head of the husband. The husband submits to Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is head of the wife, and the wife submits to Christ, but there is between them a relationship. The husband is to love his wife, and she responds in love. The husband is to be head of the wife and in response she submits. That's the pattern he lays out here.

Now, how about this word fear? Does it strike fear in your hearts to see that in the sentence? Phobos is the Greek word. We get our word phobia. Phobet comes out of that word. So, what kind of fear is this he's talking about? Is it this kind? Is it nail biting and bite your fingers down to the knuckles? Or is it just anxiety? Should we be anxious about Christ? Or is it just being a little nervous? Well, what it boils down to is this.

This is a reverence for Christ. And we see that certainly the Lord is not expecting that we should be in terror at his coming. As a matter of fact, there is reward for those who look forward to his coming, who, as Paul puts it to Timothy, love his appearing. So it's a reverence for Christ that's intended here. It's a respect for him as He is the creator of the universe, the one who provides us privileged access to the Father and all the other blessings that we have that Paul has spelled out in the earlier chapters of Ephesians. It's a reverence for him, a reverential fear, if you want to put it that way.

Now, wives to your own husbands. This is talking about the relationship between the wife and the husband, not about all wives and all husbands. That would be confusing. He is looking particularly for the husband to compliment, and I'm not talking about saying nice things. Honey, you have a nice tie on today. You don't smell as bad as you did yesterday. Stuff like that. No, it is compliment in the sense of her kind of being the other half, the other part, a complimentary part. And that's what he's spelling out here.

So it speaks explicitly to the relationship, personal relationship between the husband and wife, not just all wives be subject to all husbands, okay? And so what's the example here? For the husband is the head of the wife. So here's his logic. See, he's not just saying, do this because I think it's a good idea, or I dreamt it up one night, or something of that sort. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. That's this equation that we have seen here bottom part. In regard to headship, this is the model that he spells out. You see, if you think about it, what is he doing?

He's taking an example of the relationship between Christ and the Church, which lasts into eternity, time beyond all time that we've ever known and can know here on earth. He is taking a relationship that extends beyond all nations and peoples and human level boundaries, and he is saying, this relationship which is eternal, this relationship which isn't limited to one culture or another, that's the example. That's the relationship example, not just for you to act out of, but for you to understand this is what the life of Christ looks like in a husband and a wife. This is the way the power of God is going to be when it is worked out in the lives of the believer.

That's what he's spelling out. He's not trying to say it needs to narrow down to this culture or that culture. He's giving an example that the people in Ephesus could understand. He's giving us an example that we can understand. And if we take this to another culture, they can understand. Not that it's going to be like the culture. It won't be. It will be like the relationship between Christ and the Church. Beyond all cultures and beyond all time.

He Himself being the Savior of the body. Now, does that imply that the Husband is the Savior of the wife? Is that what he's telling us? Is the husband then the Savior of the wife? The Savior loves us. That's why he's spelling it out. And that's why he's going to go, as we look through here, Christ is the Savior of the body and he spells out his love for the body in these four ways. Ah, that's what he's talking about. Husbands, wives, I hate to tell you, The husband is not going to be the Savior of the wife, but the husband does have spelled out here four different ways in which the husband will live out the love of Christ to the body as the Savior. Okay. So the husband's character then is like this. Not this. Okay? Not like that. This.

A sacrificial love, that's the husband's character that she is being asked, that she is being told, but as an expression of what it means to be filled with Christ by means of the Spirit. She is being told, that's the kind of love that you're being asked to submit to, a sacrificial love.

A sanctifying love, a love that looks to the spiritual growth of the wife. A love that looks to the wife being used of the Lord to the max. A caring love that widens the circle of love of the man beyond just himself. And finally, a bonded love. We'll look into the qualities here that he describes in more detail as we go through these over the next couple of weeks.

But that is what the wife is being directed towards. Be subject to your husbands. Oh, and by the way, husbands, here is the immense love that the Savior has for us. That's your example. Here is the unfathomable love that the Lord has for us. That's what we have as a standard.

So, the husband is to the wife, as Christ is to the church. Notice I have here, the ought to be is lined out, because those are perhaps implied, but actually not in the original Greek, because it's more also the wives to their husbands. Why? The example is the relationship of Christ and the church. So the implication is, or the ought to, comes not from the original language, but by the relationship. So, does it say that explicitly? No. Does it mean it? Yes. Okay. As the church is to Christ, so the wives are to be to their husbands in everything. Subject.

Now, it's really important for us to keep in mind the world just simply has no definition. The world has to offer you a massive blur, and that's as good as it gets. The world doesn't have any definition of male and female. As I understand it, and the statistic may be a little aged, but from at least a few years ago, some 10,000 people were choosing to have operations and hormones to switch. The world is confused. People are confused. Of the male and female role, people have all sorts of different definitions. Some sociologists said we have 11 different relationship choices. I don't know where they get that, but anyway. Mass confusion is what the world has to offer.

The definition of what marriage is or what marriage is about. Of course, we argue on the legal realm, you know, who's allowed to get married? The world really has no standards. And whatever standards they have are being tested out and challenged in courtrooms and in legislative bodies across the country.

What they are also clueless about is where is this marriage headed? We've got some statistics as to where they're headed. We've got some ideas as to where the marriage is headed. What is phenomenal and what is wonderful? As believers, we know exactly where this marriage is headed.

God has the definition. He created the male and female. He was the one who created the original definition. That's what He had in mind. God has defined what marriage is. He does have a definition. He has defined the roles through Christ and the Church.

Is that micromanaging the relationship? No. Is it defining it according to one culture? No. From what we can tell, what Paul has laid out here in Ephesians 5 does not correspond to any culture on earth. Why? The definition is a relationship between Christ and the Church.

God has said where it is headed, and He's also defined it by the husband's love. And finally, here God has even spelled out what kind of love it's to be. We have as an opportunity for those to whom the Lord has married at one particular time or another, the opportunity for whatever length of time that is, to express to the world around us in living color, the relationship between Christ and the Church. We get for a time to live out, to express the relationship between Christ and the Church, the relationship that lasts eternally. We get to spell that out for people for a time. Isn't that a great honor? Isn't that a wonderful thing? That's a marvelous thing that the Lord has done. And finally, the passage ends up in everything.

One of the things that would happen in the, I'll call it the Greco-Roman, this isn't gecko but Greco, Greco-Roman culture, the Greek and Roman culture, what would happen typically is the wife was assigned to be in charge of the home and she was just supposed to take care of the house and take care of the kids and raise the kids and the husband would a lot of times just be otherwise occupied. He just wanted to make sure things weren't too crazy at home but he was out doing other things. and being involved with other women even, as just the standard in the culture. And it was common for the wives, because really it's awfully limiting, and she was really kind of a domestic slave in many of the cultures around the Roman Empire. She would be not subject to her husband in every area that she could. Any area where she could find freedom and latitude she could be not subject to him.

But if you look at Paul's example, isn't the relationship between Christ and the church all-defining? Isn't that for eternity? Doesn't that involve everything? If that's the case, then it makes sense that the wife is subject to the husband in everything, not all this leaking around the edges or whatever she can get away with, which was typical of the culture.

So he's asking them, this has a definition that this culture knows nothing of. He's asking them, do you see this here? The relationship between Christ and the church defines things that this world will never understand. We cannot expect the world to understand it.

Now, you ladies might be thinking, yeah, but there's not too many guys out there that are worth chasing after. And so this scenario may end up being what you envision. But really, you need to know there's all kinds of guys out there, okay? Just all sorts. So don't worry about that, okay? Don't worry about it. There's just lots of fellas out there. Great examples, huh? All right.

What matters is this. It's the character of the life in Christ in and through the husband that counts, not their facial hair. Do you hear me? It's the character of Christ in and through the husband that counts, no matter how much they weigh, no matter how much buzz they got on the face. That's what matters. That's what we're looking for.

And the world is not going to communicate that message. None of the heroes that you're going to see coming off the silver screen are going to communicate this. Why? It has to be revealed through Scripture. This is what we desperately need to know in our homes and in our families. You've heard frequently, and you'll see it on TV shows, where they're about to do something that's bordering on insanity. Don't try this at home. Well, guess what? This is the exact opposite of this. This is exactly what's to happen at home. And don't try it. By Christ's strength, with His energizing, most certainly do it. That's what God had in mind.

The four kinds of love that we'll be looking at over these next couple of weeks here, that is exactly what God has in mind, regardless of what the husband looks like. It is not pursuing this guy or that guy because of the bank account or how he looks at this particular moment, but it is the husband loving the wife unconditionally. It is the life of Christ lived out in that husband.

Notice, as we look through this passage, what is pivotal in the passage he keeps going back and back and back to. See this? and being subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church. He himself being the Savior of the body, but as the church is subject to Christ.

The definition of the entire relationship centers upon Christ. Do you see that? Before he gets very far in this passage, he keeps saying, Christ, Christ, Christ, and a few other alternate names, but the point keeps coming across. Christ is the essential definition of the relationship. It's the relationship between Christ and the Church. And you don't have the Church without Christ.

That is the example for the husband and the wife. It starts and ends with Christ. It begins with Him. He is ever the definition of everything that is needed in the husband and wife relationship. The husband is to the wife as Christ is to the church. So the church is to Christ as the wives are to the husbands. Christ is ever the absolute, the definition.

So we have this question here. What's the character of the one to whom she is subject? And really, the ladies are asking that question, aren't they? As soon as they hear this, you can imagine Paul says, Do a little explaining here. Because as soon as they hear, be subject to your husband, and then he ends it with the impossible, in everything, their mind is conjuring up, to what? To whom? Am I being subject?

And he doesn't leave that question unanswered at all. You see, what he does is he paints a picture with these words here, and he does a very thorough job of it. The picture that he paints is not for spiritual wimps. Being a husband or a wife, in the Christian sense, is not for spiritual wimps. You see, you can be macho, you can even come out and sing, I am woman, if you want. That's not what he's talking about. Spiritual wimpiness is a problem, and the only solution to it is dependence upon Christ. that makes us anything other than the spiritual wimp.

It's that relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and the husband and the wife that's the defining relationship. Let's pray. Lord, as we look at these truths, what phenomenal truths we have. And Lord, what an amazing privilege we have to live out, moment by moment, day by day, between sunset and sunrise, to live out the very life between Christ and the church, to live out as living examples. And you don't ask that we do that on our own strength, but instead, Lord, we can avoid that spiritual wimpiness by dependence upon you. Thank you for that. What a marvelous privilege you've given us. We pray for wisdom and insight and understanding this. In Jesus' name, Amen.