Wife and husband that the Bible speaks about
Ephesians 5:22~33 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. (22, 25)
Hymn for scheduled worship: Korean/English Hymnal #559 All Year in Our Home the Spring Breezes Blow (#305 in previous version)
The greatest tragedy in the world right now is that we are losing hold of the blessing of the family that God has given to us. That is why many children are failing, and this leads to problems in the society. What must we do?
1. Forums that we must do
First, it is the blessing of salvation (Ephesians 1:3~19). Business, studies, and family life are all important, but forums must take place. Second, it is the blessing of evangelism. God saved us, who were dead in our transgressions and sins, followed the ways of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, and were by nature objects of wrath. Evangelism is God’s power. Third, it is the blessing of missions. Fourth, it is the blessing of the church. Church is a place where we resolve the spiritual problems of humankind and give them salvation, save our people and the nation, and save the field of the world. Fifth, it is the power to overcome the world. We will come to save the world when we receive the filling of the Holy Spirit.
2. God’s image that we must find in married couples
Because a husband and a wife are created in the image of God, each person must find God’s image in the other person. If a married couple is unaware that they are created in the image of God, they will keep having trouble and be incompatible. Spouses are suitable helpers for each other. Because the two became one flesh, each holds half the blessings. And children entrusted to parents are the Lord’s inheritance. We must find the blessing of a married couple recorded in the Bible through our family.
3. Fundamental blessing of a married couple
Three things are commanded of wives. Submit to your husbands as to the Lord; the husband is the head of the wife; wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church; husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies; husbands should care for their wives just as Christ does the church. In other words, wives must do to husbands as they would do to Christ, and husbands should do to wives as Christ died for the church. Why are these commands emphasized? In the coming age, the 21st century will be a time when people suffer from spiritual problems. As children grow, they will fall into the spiritual problems of their parents. They are the ones who are to enter into the field of the greatest blessing, and yet they are constantly seized by their past and cannot break free from it. That is why we must form a family that seeks the fundamental blessing.
- The greatest meeting that God granted us is with our spouse, and the field where we enjoy every blessing is our home. The Early Church spread the Gospel throughout Rome through homes. What are the blessings that families and married couples must restore for world evangelization?
Immanuel Church Sunday Worship 2nd Service / 2011.2.6