Sharon Reformed Presbyterian Church · Sermon study sheet

The Christian Husband (Ephesians 5:25-33)

Bryan Schneider · October 19, 2020

Ephesians 5:25-33

sharonrpc.org/sermons/the-christian-husband

Summary

Ephesians 5 repeatedly commands husbands to love their wives; the passage does not tell them to dominate, but makes Christ's self-giving love for the church their model.
Christlike marital love includes both courageous sacrifice in crisis and faithful, patient care through the ordinary routines of a shared life.
A husband is called to seek his wife's spiritual good through prayer, Scripture, and a home shaped by God's Word, while recognizing that only Christ saves and sanctifies.
Love nourishes and cherishes a wife as one's own body, attending to physical provision, emotional care, spiritual well-being, and costly time.
Marriage forms a one-flesh union that requires leaving father and mother and cleaving to one's spouse; parents honor this new household by offering counsel without control or meddling.
Husbands and wives remain equally dignified members of Christ's body, and the husband's particular responsibility is to make respect easier through sacrificial, patient, truthful, and enduring love.

Why does Paul command husbands to love rather than to lord authority over their wives?
How does Christ provide a better model when a husband did not receive a faithful example at home?
What do courageous sacrifice and decades of ordinary faithfulness each reveal about marital love?
How can a husband seek his wife's holiness without pretending to be her savior or using Scripture as a weapon?
What physical, emotional, and spiritual dimensions are included in nourishing and cherishing a spouse?
Why does the one-flesh union require both leaving parents and continuing to honor them?
How can parents offer wisdom to married children without taking control of their marriage?
Which qualities of 1 Corinthians 13 most expose areas where a husband needs repentance and growth?

Christlike love: Self-giving, patient, truthful, and enduring care modeled on Christ's love for the church.
Sacrificial love: Love willing to bear real cost for another's good, displayed supremely when Christ gave himself for his people.
Sanctification: God's work of making his people holy through Christ, especially by his Word and Spirit.
Nourish and cherish: To provide tender, sustained care for a spouse's bodily, emotional, and spiritual good.
One flesh: The covenant union in which husband and wife are joined as a new family whose good is shared.
Leave and cleave: The marital transition in which loyalty to the new one-flesh household becomes primary while parents continue to be honored.