Class Outline:

Sunday January 30, 2022

 

Why humanity? Humankind was made, is made in the image (model, idol, or copy) of God, and so they are to reflect God.

 

We were made to reflect God. We fell but remained in God’s image. We didn’t reflect Him, at least most did not, and those who did struggled greatly with personal sin.

 

HEB 1:3

And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature;

 

When Christ came, His humanity was the pure reflection of the Father.

 

In Him we have been given the open door that leads to the mirror that reflects God’s glory, and through our own understanding, we will reflect that glory to the world.

 

GEN 1:27

And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.

 

1CO 11:7

For a man ought not to have his head covered, since he is the image and glory of God; but the woman is the glory of man.

 

The woman is also made in the image of God, but she takes a submissive role in marriage and in the original creation, she was taken from man and was made to be his helpmate (to her husband, not to all men).

 

God has a perfect role for each of us. Any position of submission is never one that is less in honor or position, but in fact it is a glorious place, since all of us are to submit to one another in the fear of Christ (EPH 5:21), and the greatest of us is the servant of all.

 

Paul gives his main idea right at the start of Eph 4 - “walk in a manner worthy of the calling (election) with which you have been called” and throughout the passage he alludes to this main idea … “no longer walk as an unbeliever … walk in love … walk as children of light.” He tells us why we are to conduct our lives like Christ did. We are all a part of one body, one Spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Father who is over all. He tells us what that walk will look like and he tells us of the schemes of the enemy that are designed to keep us immature and away from our Christ-like life. In that life, Paul includes self, the church, marriage, family, and work, all of which are given by our Almighty God with a manner of life in mind.

 

The idea of the entire passage is our walk with God and it is supported with the things we just mentioned. As you learn of self, or church, or marriage, or home, this main idea must be kept in mind or you will get lost in details and become ineffective at the life-long practice of all of them. Focusing solely on how your spouse is to behave (and perhaps they are not currently), or the behavior of the members of your church, or your children, or even yourself, and losing sight of the main idea of walking in light because … why? (EPH 5:8) you will become nit-picky on moments and lose sight of the purpose. Keep the purpose in mind and you will do well in the moments.

 

Therefore, one of the main ideas that comes from Paul’s description of the worthy walk is submission.

 

We must see this master principle in our churches, our homes, and in our work - submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.

 

Why the fear of Christ? Submission to the will of the Father was Him to the core, and we are His, and we have the deepest respect and reverence for Him, making us live to please Him.

 

Beginning in chapter 4, Paul gives instruction on the life of the new humanity, both as individuals and in our church communities, and then in 5:22 he immediately and seamlessly jumps to the manner of that same life in the home and at work.

 

The key word that acts as a hinge in all places and situations is submission (hupotasso = to rank under: hupo = under, tasso = to arrange; 5:21, (22), 24).

 

He ties them all together under the umbrella of the will of God for authority, self-surrender and humility in both.

 

There are real differences between church and home. Children don’t choose their parents nor parents their children whereas church members enter voluntarily. Marriage is for life whereas a believer can leave one church and attend another. Still, in all institutions, the function of authority and love, alongside submission and self-surrender, are God’s clear message for the production of peace, harmony, and the love that builds up.

 

Chapters 4-6 in Ephesians are a stirring summons to the unity and purity of the church; but they are more than that. Their theme is the integration of Christian experience (what we are), Christian theology (what we believe), and Christian ethics (how we behave). They emphasize that being, thought, and actions belong together.

 

EPH 5:21

and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.

 

The bond that links husband and wife, lying at the basis of collective human existence through Adam and Eve, has as its ground in the relation of Christ to humanity. Christ united to humanity is the grand restoration of God’s design for mankind. Believers in Christ are not the exception but the norm - being God’s will for men to be saved. The unbeliever is the broken and lost arm of humanity.

 

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley writes of a future world where marriage and family have been eliminated so that humanity can avoid the challenges and emotions that they can bring. In chapter three a high ranking official teaches young students about the past when marriage and family still existed. “Just try to realize it,” he said, and his voice sent a strange thrill quivering along their diaphragms. “Try to realize what it was like to have a viviparous mother.” (viviparous - to bring forth live young from inside the body) … “Try to imagine what ‘living with one’s family’ meant.” They tried; but obviously without the smallest success. “And do you know what a home was?” They shook their heads. “Home, home - a few small rooms, stiflingly over-inhabited by a man, by a periodically teeming woman, by a rabble of boys and girls of all ages. No air, no space; and understerilized prison, darkness, disease, and smells. (one of the boys turned pale and started to get sick) A home was as squalid psychically as physically. Psychically, it was a rabbit hole, a midden, hot with frictions of tightly packed life, reeking with emotion. What suffocating intimacies, what dangerous, insane, obscene relationships between the members of the family group! … No wonder these poor pre-moderns were mad, wicked, and miserable. Their world didn’t allow them to take things easy, didn’t allow them to be sane, virtuous, and happy. What with mothers and lovers, what with the prohibitions and the lonely remorses, what with all the diseases and poverty - they were forced to feel strongly.”

 

EPH 5:22-30

Wives, be subject [no verb, taken from vs. 21] to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 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. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives [as in her duty to Christ] ought to be to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also 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 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she should be holy and blameless [Christ sacrificed to give goodness to His bride]. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies [the two are one flesh]. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body.

 

The history of mankind began in wedlock. The family is the first institution in society, and mother of all the rest.

 

Christian marriage isn’t God’s latest attempt at success in marriage; it is the one design from the beginning, and which will ultimately be fulfilled in eternity with Christ as the Bridegroom and the church and Israel as one new man in the bride.

 

Marriage was given to us by God. It is His institution. Two people, a man and a woman, become one flesh. It is to be the closest physical relationship in which the two give themselves to one another and are not ashamed. Beyond that, and more important, is their moral relationship. Only in marriage does a woman submit to a man in everything (employment is not everything). Only in marriage is a man responsible to lead in everything (employer is not everything). In marriage only are these blended most completely.

 

In marriage there are blended most completely the two principles of association amongst moral beings, - authority and love; submission and self-surrender.