11/08/2020 – Day 175 – Ephesians 4-6 //vs 5:32 – A mystery indeed!; God designed family & the marriage around the Trinity!
Husbands and wives : If only we would just accept it for what it is, a mystery beyond our full comprehension, and walk in faith in obediance to God! If we would just work through the priorities: God first, then our spouse, and lastly our children. Instead, despite our talk, we place it in the reverse order. And consequently , it is our children who get hurt. It is a paradoxical truth. If we had followed this, our world and our country would look so different, we certainly would not be facing God’s wrath as we are today. How can I say that? His Word! What have we been reading about the children of Israel, and our repeating patterns of sin that grieves the Holy Spirit?
First – Husbands – Vs 5:25: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word….” Ten years into my marriage, in bible study, I recall reflecting on this, without necessary prayer: “Wow, what a sublime metaphor!” A decade or so later, reading the same scripture with prayer, it hit me: “It is not a metaphor at all, it is literal!” (In like manner, many church denominations brush away the difficulty of John 6 by proclaiming that the Eucharist is “symbolically” the body and blood of Christ. Yea, right, read the entire passage; Did Yeshua call back the multitude of followers walking away with: “Come back, it was only a metaphor!”? Note, he didn’t soft coat it either with His equally flumaxed twelve disciples afterward. )
Second – Wives: Vs 22: “Wives, submit to your own husbands , as to the Lord.” Isn’t that what Yeshua did at the cross? So, was he not equal and co-eternal with the Father? Of course he was, to not believe that is to be a “future” Christian! Yeshua just obeyed and He is God! Does this connect with Yeshua telling the disciples that “they must be like children to enter the Kingdom”? Isn’t this another paradox? See Matthew 11:25: “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes….”
Grace! Let us start anew today and every day, living by 6:13 in our reading: “Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” We should witness to the world with our humble swagger, walking like the victors we are in Christ! Again: Hard times? Yea, and they could get much tougher. It is opportunity all the more to give Him the glory! What we don’t see is we have a cheering section in heaven….
Soli Deo Gloria!