So far we have discussed that God’s original and ongoing purpose for marriage is to picture Christ and His Church. In the last post it was pointed out that marriage is a picture of Jesus’ union to the Church. In this post we will discuss one of the more difficult subjects in marriage. The topic of submission creates a wide range of emotional responses. This is due to a misunderstanding of submission propagated by the culture. Unfortunately, submission is seen as a bad thing,

So far in this series of posts we have discussed the original and ongoing purpose of marriage. Marriage is a picture of Jesus and His Church. Although it is a mystery that was not known until the New Testament, marriage’s purpose has always been to picture Jesus’ relationship to the church and the church’s relationship to Jesus. This post will concentrate on Jesus’ union to the church, which is shown in marriage. Ephesians 5:30 tells us that we are members of Jesus’ body. We

In the last post, we discussed God’s original purpose for marriage. In this post, we will look at God’s current purpose for marriage. God has an original purpose for marriage, which is to picture Jesus and the Church. What about for here and now? How can we get to here and today? God’s current purpose for marriage is… (Are you ready for this?)… The same as His original purpose! God’s current purpose for marriage is to picture Jesus and His Church. That may seem like the most

In this post we will discuss God’s original purpose for marriage. God’s original purpose for marriage is to picture Christ and His Church As one reads Ephesians 5:22-33, he realizes that Paul quotes Genesis 2:24 in Ephesians 5:31. Ephesians 5:32 tells us that the words of Ephesians 5:31 are a mystery referring to Jesus and His Church. Therefore, Genesis 2:24 is a mystery referring to Christ and the Church. In order to understand this, we must understand what a mystery is. Eph

Our church family recently celebrated the marriage of a young couple. There is another couple in our church family who will celebrate 60 years of marriage this week. Marriage has been in the spotlight for a few weeks in our church family, so we took time to study the purpose of marriage as defined by God in the Bible. There will be a series of posts from that study. The focus of this series will be Ephesians 5:22-33. The letter to the Ephesians gives us a very detailed look i

God revealed through Paul that the unity in the one body produced by the Spirit is based in seven glorious truths. In our last post we learned that there is only one body. The universal church is the body of Christ. This body is made up of all true believers in Jesus from Acts 2 until the coming of Jesus for the church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). This universal church is expressed in local bodies of believers throughout the world. In this post we will learn about the one Spiri

In a previous post we looked at the basis of our unity as a church body. Ephesians 4:1-3 tells us that the Holy Spirit has produced unity in the body of Christ. This unity has been purchased through the death of Jesus Christ in the place of His saints. Ephesians 4:4-6 tells us the nature and basis of this unity. Our unity is based in seven glorious doctrines! The post titled “The Basis of Our Unity” presented a summary explanation of these seven doctrines (see here: https://b

Our church family is studying the Letter to the Ephesians in our Sunday Morning services. We just finished Paul’s great prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21. Here is the outline for the word of praise in Ephesians 3:20-21. Doxology – A Word of Praise Ephesians 3:20-21 The Person Praised – God the Father (cf. 3:14-15) The Ability of the Father (v. 20) – “…able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think…” The Willingness of the Father (within context of chapters 1-3 and the work