Christian Family

 Christian Family

August 27, 2025

The teaching on Christian family in Ephesians 5 and 6 have cause quite a bit of controversy in recent years. Part of the problem is when the verses are taken out of context and interpreted as rules to obey rather that fruit to grow. A man who is fully committed to Christ and is full of the love of the Lord, will grow to love his wife. A man who totally comprehends the love of Christ for the church, and thus for himself, will desire to express that same love to his wife. Likewise, his wife will recognize the love of Jesus in her husband and grow to respect and submit to him as she loves and submits to the Lord Jesus. Mutual submission is not a burden but is an act of love when both husband and wife know who they are in the Lord and are obediently walking in the Spirit. In such a marriage, the children will learn to honor their parents as they are taught to love the Lord. The problem comes when we put it all backwards and insist that the women submit to the man before he fully submits to the Lord and before he totally comprehends the love of Christ. Without being full of the Spirit such love and submission is impossible and is burdensome if you try. So the rule is to first love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and then love one another as Christ loves you.

Ephesians 5:22-33

Marriage Like Christ and the Church

22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.

Ephesians 6:1-4

Family Relationships

1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER (which is the first commandment with a promise), 3 SO THAT IT MAY BE WELL WITH YOU, AND THAT YOU MAY LIVE LONG ON THE EARTH.

4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.