First Love: The Household Song (Episode 6)
Devotional Thoughts from Ephesians 5
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21, NIV)
This is Episode 6 of my devotional series on Ephesians from my book “First Love: A Deeper Understanding of Church from the Book of Ephesians.” This episode features devotional thoughts on Ephesians 5.[1]
You can start today’s devotional by reading my Ephesians 5 paraphrase.[2]
Ephesians 5
As dearly loved children, imitate God’s example. Love people the way Jesus loved. Make yourself fully available for God’s purposes. Become a shining example without a hint of impurity or worldly self-indulgence.
Let your words reflect the image of Christ without indecent, rude, or foolish talk that insults God and his people. There is no place in the kingdom of God for such polluted self-serving idolatry. God hates disobedient rebellion. Don’t be deceived by, or associate yourself with, such hypocrites.
At one time, all of us lived in that darkness. But now, God calls us to live as children who shine the light of truth, godliness, and justice with a heart set on pleasing him. Your lifestyle should expose such shameful disobedience, bringing all such rebellion into God’s light. Nothing is truly hidden from him. Rather, our lives are a wakeup call to those in a spiritual slumber, shining the light of Christ on them.
Be intentional about your life, applying godly wisdom to make the most of every chance you get. God has a plan. Your job is to discover his will in your daily lives.
Don’t escape through drinking alcohol or indulging carelessly. Drink in the Spirit. Then your every breath will sing his songs, saturating your being in an anthem of praise and worship as you glorify God in the name of Jesus, our Savior and King.
Let your lifesong express a willingness to submit to one another out of reverence for the Body of Christ.
Wives, understand that your husband’s greatest need is your respect. Just as God established Christ as the head of the church, he created your husband to serve you. Consider how the church submits to Christ and do your best to imitate that level of submission with your husbands.
Husbands, treasure your wives as your own flesh. Serve your wives, imitating Christ’s leadership of the church. Love your wife, be generous and extravagant, just as Jesus gave himself completely to the church. Embody the very words of God to provoke her holy radiance and beauty. As Jesus’ words evoke the beauty of the church, speak love to inspire her to godliness. Let your unified marriage proclaim the unity and glory of Christ.
You left your parents to become “one flesh.” Now, your godly marriage proclaims Christ’s love for his body as every husband loves his wife and every wife honors her husband. But the mystery that I’m actually describing is Christ’s love for the church.
Ephesians 5 illustrates the glory of the church, holding up a new standard of purity, self-sacrifice, and godly living by calling us as children to imitate our heavenly Father. Rather than escaping the world, Paul urged Christians to be filled with the Spirit and proclaim God’s song of hope as a light to a dark world. Paul created a Christianized version of the Roman “household codes”[3] to describe how that looks for families.
1. Mirroring the Master (v.1-2)
Picture a child studying their mother or father, fascinated by every quality. The daughter next to the mom as she stands before the mirror, imitating every action. The son fixated on his father, learning how to interact with the world.
Christians are captivated by Christ, riveted by the Father, engrossed by the Spirit. We gaze upon his glory in hopes that he would transfigure us into his image. That is why we spend hours meditating, reading scripture, reflecting on his glory, considering his example. We become what we worship. Let’s worship God!
Our lives are a wakeup call to those in a spiritual slumber, shining the light of Christ on them…
by applying God’s word to our lives, we not only find out his will, we become the people he ‘intended’ us to be…
God builds a choir of voices who sing the same song in harmony with God tuned by the Holy Spirit.
(First Love)
2. Tuned to Resonate the Light (v.3-21)
As we reflect upon Christ, our lives become attuned to his song. We shed the discordant tones of impurity, greed, and hypocrisy that make Christians sing out of tune! We tune our lives to the light so that we can sing with a pure heart. Our song overflows from being filled with His Spirit (not with alcoholic spirits), enabling us to sing wholeheartedly with every breath. How is your song?
Paul prescribes three types of songs that can help us sing today:
Sing to encourage each other (v.19)
Sing to give thanks to the very heart of God (v.20)
Sing, resonating as one body in unison, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ (v.21)
3. The Song of the Bride (v.22-24)
Wives, created in God’s image, are the perfect counterpart to compliment the man. Amplifying the theme of singing our song, Paul illustrates how disrespect spoils the song and the magical way that a respectful wife can empower the man to become the imager God created him to be. The wife’s respect helps the man overcome his insecurities and enables the couple to sing (and live) in harmony. Although wife and husband are to “submit to one another,” Paul specifically addressed the women, perhaps to help them adjust to the revolutionary new freedom Jesus granted women without becoming domineering.
When the wife submits to the husband, a powerful transformation occurs,
making the husband a better man, and mysteriously displaying the glory of Christ in their marriage.
(First Love)
4. The Husband’s Song (v.25-30)
Husbands, also created in God’s image, have a built-in capacity to love, though they need to be reminded to unleash this power in their marriages. Unloving behavior dishonors God and embitters the wife. The more extravagantly generous the husband is with his wife, the stronger the bonds created in the relationship. Love fuels the marriage, just as love fuels the body of Christ. The husband’s most powerful anthem is literally a love song!
A man who does not love does not fully become the man God intended…
your godly marriage proclaims Christ’s love for his body
as every husband loves his wife and every wife honors her husband.
(First Love)
5. The Song of the Church (v.31-33)
Paul unlocks the secret of a powerful marriage by describing the power of Christ’s love for the church. As Christ created the church to be loved, God created wives to be extravagantly cherished without limits. Just as the church is designed to resonate and magnify Christ when the body of Christ reveres, submits to, and respects Christ, God created husbands to be honored. Together these two dynamics amplify the song of the church and ultimately bring glory to God. (First Love)
Every time you kiss your spouse,
bring each other a gift, serve one another out of love,
or pray together as a couple,
your love projects the relationship between Christ and the church.
(First Love)
Closing thoughts: Jesus and Paul redefined the family to reflect God’s parenting. Starting with a call to each individual to deal with the darkness and rebellion in their own lives before addressing their relationships with family members. Paul followed with a beautiful description of Christian marriage—a true love song with mutual submission bringing a harmony that contrasted the world’s authoritarian male-dominated household. Let’s address the darkness in our lives so we can sing the song God created us to sing!
[1] To get the most out of this series, I encourage you to get a copy of the book on Amazon (only $6) and take a month to dig into a chapter each day! I’ll publish a new devotional each week to help us reflect on what we are learning.
[2] Note: This is my own paraphrase of the book of Ephesians that appears in my book First Love. I developed it to help me better digest the depth of teaching found in the scripture. In no way am I claiming that this is more accurate than a translation, but for those of us who have read the same translation more than a dozen times, it can be helpful to revisit the text from a different angle. I pray this version will help you find new insights into the scriptures.
[3] To learn more, read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Testament_household_code.