CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES
Ephesians 5:22. Submit yourselves.—Same word as in previous verse; neither here nor there does it involve any loss of self-respect. The wife’s tribute to her husband’s worth is submission—the grace of childhood to both parents equally is obedience.
Ephesians 5:23. Christ is the head of the Church.—Defending her at His own peril (“If ye seek Me, let these go their way”); serving her in utmost forgetfulness of self (“I am amongst you as he that serveth”); “Giving Himself up for her.”
Ephesians 5:25. Husbands, love your wives.—This will prevent the submission of the wife from ever becoming degrading—as submission to a tyrant must be.
Ephesians 5:26. That He might sanctify and cleanse.—There is no “and” between “sanctify” and “cleanse” in what St. Paul wrote. “Sanctify it, having cleansed it” (R.V.). “I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified” (John 17:19).
Ephesians 5:27. Spot or wrinkle.—“Spot,” a visible blemish, used in the plural, figuratively, in 2 Peter 2:13, of men who disfigure Christian assemblies. “Wrinkle”—“a wrinkled bride” is an incongruity, just as the mourning which produces wrinkles is out of place in the bride-chamber (Matthew 9:15).
Ephesians 5:28. As their own bodies.—Not “as they love their own bodies” merely, but “as being their own.” See Ephesians 5:31, “one flesh.”
Ephesians 5:31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife.—We must regard these words, not as a continuation of Adam’s in Genesis 2:23, but as the words of the narrator, who regards what our first father said as a mystical hint of the origin of marriage.
Ephesians 5:32. This is a great mystery.—The meaning of which is known only to the initiated. Something having a significance beyond what appears on the surface. But I speak.—The “I” is emphatic: “I give my interpretation.” My chief interest in this mystery is as it relates to Christ and to the Church.
Ephesians 5:33. Nevertheless.—“I pursue the matter no further”; and though this mystical turn is given to the words, still in actual life let the husband love (Ephesians 5:25) and the wife show reverence (Ephesians 5:22). Let all the married among you apply the mystery to their own case, so that the husband may love the wife and the wife fear the husband.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Ephesians 5:22-33
Duties of Wives and Husbands.
I. The duty of the wife is submission to her husband.—“Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands.”
1. A submission defined by religious obligation.—“As unto the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22). This submission implies no inferiority. Husband and wife are equal before God, and each is separately responsible to Him. The husband cannot love and serve God for the wife, nor the wife for the husband; each stands related to Him as a distinct personality, with distinct duties and responsibilities for each. God has the first claim upon them both, and their relation and duties to each other must be in harmony with that supreme claim. The submission demanded is not the subjection of an inferior to a superior, but the voluntary, sympathetic obedience that can be gracefully and appropriately rendered only by an equal to an equal. “It is here that Christianity, in contrast with paganism and notably with Mahometanism, raises the weaker sex to honour. In soul and destiny it declares the woman to be man, endowed with all rights and powers inherent in humanity. It is one of the glories of our faith that it has enfranchised our sisters, and raises them in spiritual calling to the full level of their brothers and husbands.”
2. A submission recognising the headship of the husband.—
(1) Analogous to the headship of Christ to His Church. “For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church” (Ephesians 5:23).
(2) Unlike that headship inasmuch as Christ is not only the head but also the Saviour of the Church. “And He is the Saviour of the body” (Ephesians 5:23). As the Saviour His headship is unrivalled and must be acknowledged by every member alike. The wife must not think too much of her husband: there is One who is superior to him, and who must be all in all to them both.
3. A submission after the pattern of that of the Church to Christ.—“As the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:24; cf. Ephesians 5:33). Religion sanctifies all relationships and makes duty a joy. As the wife obeys Christ in spiritual things, so she will obey her husband in all things righteous. Mary, wife of Prince William of Orange and the heir-apparent to the English throne, was asked what her husband the prince should be if she became queen. She called in her husband and promised him he should always bear rule; and asked only that he would obey the command, “Husbands, love your wives,” as she should do that, “Wives, be obedient to your husbands in all things.”
II. The duty of the husband is to love his wife.—
1. A love that seeks to promote the highest spiritual interests of the wife (Ephesians 5:25-29). It must be a Christ-like, self-sacrificing, all-devoted love. It is greatly within the power of the husband to help or hinder the spiritual life of the wife. The man is apt to become so self-absorbed and forgetful that he needs reminding of his duty to love and cherish the one who should be dearer to him than any other. Assured of the reality and unselfishness of her husband’s love, there is no sacrifice she will hesitate to make, nor will she spare any effort to attain the Christ-likeness of character to which he may wish to lead her. “One with Christ. This is the ideal Christian state. We have a faint reflection of this in that which should be the ideal condition of husband and wife. They are no longer twain but one flesh. They are to be as nearly as possible one person. Their thoughts, their interests, their hopes, their aims are one. Marriage was given that it might be a representation of the spiritual union between Christ and His Church. The union of each separate soul with Christ is a fragment of His union with the whole Church, and must partake of the same character. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.”
2. A love arising from the intimacy and sacredness of the marriage bond (Ephesians 5:30-32).—Marriage is a union for life between one man and one woman; consequently bigamy, polygamy, and voluntary divorce are all inconsistent with its nature. It must be entered into freely and cordially by the parties, with the conviction that one is suited to the other, and to take the positions involved in the natural and scriptural view of the relation. “Marriage,” said Jeremy Taylor, “is a school and exercise of virtue. Here is the proper sense of piety and patience, of the duty of parents, and the charity of relatives; here kindness is spread abroad and love is united and made firm as a centre. Marriage is the nursery of heaven, hath in it the labours of love and the delicacies of friendship, the blessing of society and the union of hands and hearts. Like the useful bee, marriage builds a house, unites into societies and republics, exercises many virtues, promotes the interest of mankind, and is that state of good things to which God has designed the present constitution of the world.”
3. A love strengthened by the observance of mutual duties (Ephesians 5:33).—Love manifested begets love, and strengthens with exercise. The loving reverence of the wife follows on the frank and genuine love of the husband. This was an epitaph in a churchyard inscribed by a husband after sixty years of married life “She always made home happy.” The Christian conception of love and marriage began a new era in the world, and has exalted woman to her true place.
Lessons.—
1. Marriage is not to be lightly entered into.
2. Is dignified as a symbol of the union between Christ and His Church. 3. Binds the contracting parties to fidelity in observing the most sacred vows.
GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES
Ephesians 5:22-33. Wives and Husbands.
I. There are duties which are common to both the correlates.—The husband and wife are in some respects equals. As they are one and have one common interest they ought to act with an undivided concern for the happiness of the family. They are alike bound to mutual fidelity and a chaste conversation. They are under equal obligations to study each other’s peace and comfort.
II. There are some duties particularly incumbent on the wife.—These the apostle expresses by the terms submission, reverence, obedience, and subjection. Since the Church is subject to Christ, the woman ought to be subject to her husband, who, by Christ’s authority, is constituted her head. A family should resemble a Church in union, peace, and subordination. The honour and interest of religion require that wives, by a cheerful subordination, co-operate with their husbands in all the important concerns of the household, and in the nurture, education, and government of the dependent members.
III. There are duties particularly incumbent on the husband towards his wife.—These the apostle expresses by the word “love,” which here stands opposed to sharpness and severity. One argument for this love is the example of Christ in His love and devotion to the Church. Another reason is, the intimacy of the relationship—“Whoso loveth his wife loveth himself.” Where the spirit of religion reigns in both, the union will be easy and their joint government in the family have efficacy. The maintenance of family religion depends on nothing more than the union of the heads. For how can they unite in prayers and praises who unite in nothing else.—Lathrop.
Ephesians 5:23-32. Christ and His Bride.
I. Christ’s love to the Church (Ephesians 5:25-27). We must value and joyfully assert our individual part in the redeeming love of the Son of God; but we must equally admit the sovereign rights of the Church in the Redeemer’s passion. There is in some an absorption in the work of grace within their own hearts, an individualistic salvation-seeking that like all selfishness defeats its end, for it narrows and impoverishes the inner life thus sedulously cherished. The Church does not exist simply for the benefit of individual souls; it is an eternal institution, with an affiance to Christ, a calling and destiny of its own; within that universal sphere our personal destiny holds its particular place. The Christ is worthy and she must be made worthy. From eternity He set His love upon her; on the cross He won her back from her infidelity at the price of His blood. Through the ages He has been wooing her to Himself, and schooling her in wise and manifold ways that she may be fit for her heavenly calling. Through what cleansing fires, through what baptisms, even of blood, she has still to pass ere the consummation is reached, He only knows who loved her and gave Himself for her. He will spare to His Church nothing, either of bounty or of trial, that her perfection needs.
II. Christ’s authority over the Church (Ephesians 5:23-24).—The Church is no democracy, any more than she is an aristocracy or a sacerdotal absolutism: she is a Christocracy. The people are not rulers in the house of God; they are the ruled, laity and ministers alike. We acknowledge this in theory; but our language and spirit would oftentimes be other than they are, if we were penetrated with the sense of the continual presence and majesty of the Lord Jesus in our assemblies. The Church’s protection from human tyranny, from schemes of ambition, from the intrusion of political methods and designs, lies in her sense of the splendour and reality of Christ’s dominion and of her own eternal life in Him.
III. The mystery of the Church’s origin in Christ (Ephesians 5:30-32).—God chose us in Christ before the world’s foundation. We were created in the Son of God’s love antecedently to our redemption by Him. Christ recovers through the cross that which pertains inherently to Him, which belonged to Him by nature, and is as a part of Himself. The derivation of Eve from the body of Adam, as that is affirmed in the mysterious words of Genesis, is analogous to the derivation of the Church from Christ. The latter relationship existed in its ideal, and as conceived in the purpose of God, prior to the appearance of the human race. In St. Paul’s theory, the origin of the woman in man, which forms the basis of marriage in Scripture, looked farther back to the origin of humanity in Christ Himself. In some mystical but real sense marriage is a reunion, the reincorporation of what had been sundered. Seeking his other self, the complement of his nature, the man breaks the ties of birth and founds a new home. So the inspired author of the passage in Genesis (Ephesians 2:21-22) explains the origin of marriage, and the instinct which draws the bridegroom to his bride. But our apostle sees within this declaration a deeper truth, kept secret from the foundation of the world. When he speaks of this great mystery, he means thereby not marriage itself, but the saying of Adam about it. This text was a standing problem to the Jewish interpreters. “But for my part,” says the apostle, “I refer it to Christ and to the Church.” St. Paul, who has so often before drawn the parallel between Adam and Christ, by the light of this analogy perceives a new and rich meaning in the old dark sentence. It helps him to see how believers in Christ, forming collectively His body, are not only grafted into Him, but were derived from Him and formed in the very mould of His nature. In our union through grace and faith with Christ crucified we realise again the original design of our being. Christ has purchased by His blood no new or foreign bride, but her who was His from eternity—the child who had wandered from the Father’s house, the betrothed who had left her Lord and spouse.—Findlay.
Ephesians 5:25-33. The Christian Law of Marriage—
I. Demands self-sacrificing love.
II. Recognises the sacredness of the union between the contracting parties.
III. Is ennobled in being a type of the union between Christ and the Church.
IV. Involves mutual fidelity on the part of both husband and wife.
Ephesians 5:25-27. Christ’s Love for the Church.
I. Christ’s love of His Church.—It was—
1. Ancient.
2. Self-moved.
3. Active.
4. Effective.
II. Christ’s sacrifice of Himself as an exhibition of His love.—
1. Himself. His life. What a life!
2. As a sacrifice. The essence of it is vicarious suffering.
3. To all the suffering which justice demanded.
III. Christ’s more immediate object in what He has done.—
1. Sanctification. As essential as pardon.
2. By the agency of the Holy Spirit. Signified by the washing of water.
3. Through the instrumentality of the word.
IV. Christ’s ultimate aim.—
1. To present His Church to Himself. A nuptial figure.
2. Free from all imperfections.
3. Adorned with all excellencies.
(1) Our obligations to Christ.
(2) The real value of holiness.
(3) The high destiny of believers.—G. Brooks.
The Future Glory of the Church.
I. The future state of the Church.—In describing the future condition of the Church, the apostle has evidently in his mind two previous states: her original state when lying dead in trespasses and sins, and her subsequent earthly state when separated from the mass of the ungodly and partially redeemed. We have the people of Christ before us in three distinct points of view:—
1. As wholly defiled.—Speaking of “sanctifying and cleansing” the Church intimates her complete defilement.
2. As in some measure cleansed.—Though sanctified and cleansed, we read of spots still left on the Church.
3. As altogether pure.—Faultless in God’s presence and estimation.
II. The causes to which this state is to be ascribed.—
1. The love of Christ.
2. Love revealed in sacrifice as another step towards final purity.
3. The work of the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:26).
4. The word of God (Ephesians 5:26). A right understanding of its testimony and a heartfelt belief in its truth.
III. The great end for which all these means of holiness are brought into operation.—“That He might present it to Himself a glorious Church” (Ephesians 5:27). The likeness of God will be put on her, the image of God shine in her; that attribute of divinity—holiness—which is the perfection of divinity will be her crown.—C. Bradley.
The Divine Ideal of the Church.
I. We have an array of stupendous facts concerning the Church.—
1. The divine prevision. Before the eternal Son of God could give Himself for the Church, He must have had it in His mind.
2. The Redeemer’s actual love for the Church. 3. The Redeemer’s amazing self-sacrifice on behalf of the Church. 4. That the Redeemer has a very definite purpose concerning His Church.
II. The distinguishing marks or signs of the members of the Church.—They are personal and experimental.
1. The casting out of natural impurities. Improvement is not enough. Nothing but a thorough re-creation can effect what is required.
2. The instrument of this change is the truth.
3. This change, this introduction into the Church, is a thing complete in itself, becomes historical, and ought never to need repeating.
4. The way is open for the appearance of the other personal and experimental sign—sanctification (Ephesians 5:26).
5. Christ’s idea of the Church given in these verses is not abstract, impracticable, and untrue to the possibilities of ordinary human nature.
III. Here we catch a glimpse of the future and eternal glory of the Church.—How stupendous an event it will be when, at the consummation of all things, the whole Church will be presented to the Lord Jesus! What can secure Church membership? Neither early training, nor baptism, nor the holding of, an orthodox creed, nor association with a religious and devout assembly, nor the filling of ecclesiastical office, nor even intelligent approach to the table of the Lord. Such things are means to an end. That end is true membership in the Church of Christ. And that membership is attained and secured by divine renewal of the heart, and by that conformity to the mind of Christ which is expressive of the new life. The true unity of the Church of Christ is that spiritual oneness which has its expression in identity of Christian life.—W. Hudson.
Ephesians 5:25. A Noble Self-sacrifice.—Caius Gracchus, who was the idol of the Roman people, having carried his regard for the lower orders so far as to draw upon himself the resentment of the nobility, an open rupture ensued; and the two extremities of Rome resembled two camps—Opimius the consul on one side, and Gracchus and his friend Fulvius on the other. A battle ensued in which the consul, meeting with more vigorous resistance than he expected, proclaimed an amnesty for all those who should lay down their arms, and at the same time promised to pay for the heads of Gracchus and Fulvius their weight in gold. This proclamation had the desired effect. The populace deserted their leaders, Fulvius was taken and beheaded, and Gracchus, at the advice of his two friends, Licinius Crassus and Pomponius, determined to flee the city, and reached the bridge Sublicius, where his enemies, who pursued him close, would have overtaken and seized him if his two friends had not opposed their fury; but they saw the danger he was in and determined to save his life at the expense of their own. They defended the bridge against all the consular troops till Gracchus was out of their reach; but at length, being overpowered by numbers, and covered with wounds, they both expired on the bridge they had so valiantly defended.—Biblical Treasury.
Ephesians 5:30. Members of the Body of Christ.
I. The doctrine.—The apostle is speaking of believers only; of believers as believing; of all believers. His language implies:—
1. Union.—Real, intimate, indissoluble.
2. Dependence.—Of the members on the heart. Of the members on the head.
3. Sympathy.—Sincere, entire, uninterrupted. Value of human sympathy. Its rarity. Its necessary imperfection. The superiority of Christ’s.
II. The duty.—
1. Love. A special affection arising out of a special relation.
2. Reverence.—There should be no unholy familiarity.
3. Obedience.—Responsive to His will as a part of Himself.—G. Brooks.
Ephesians 5:33. The Sanctity of Home Life.—The Christian home is the corner-stone of modern civilisation—the best fruit Christianity has yielded the earth. The Anglo-Saxon home is the crowning glory of the race. Contrast it with French home life, or the miserable home life in Utah! National self-preservation demands a vigorous uprooting of Mormon polygamy and Western divorce lawlessness. That which is punished as a crime in the best and purest Christian lands must be punished as a crime wherever it is found. Garfield kissing his mother and his wife at his Inauguration was a sweet revelation of holy family life.—Homiletic Monthly.