DAY 662 - Husbands, Take The Role of Jesus to Love Your Wife (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

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                               Today's Reading: Ephesians 5:21-33

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Please click this link to read Ephesians 5:21-33

English(NIV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians 5&version=NIV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=以 弗 所 書 5&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Starting in this passage, Paul talks about how we put all those things he says into practice. Especially in dealing with relationships.

     First and most important relationship that Paul wants to talk about is wives and husbands. After two thousand years as in this modern age, marriage and families create lots of problems. Do you have problems in your marriage? Is there a way to solve your problem? Yes, there surely is. 

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
      Paul insists that the husband should take as his role model, not the typical bossy or bullying male of the modern, or indeed the ancient, stereotype but Jesus himself.  But, you say, Jesus wasn't married.  No; but throughout this letter Paul has spoken of the church as the body of the Messiah, and now he produces a new twist from within this theme.  The church is the bride of the Messiah, the wife of the king.
     The church became the Messiah's bride, not by being dragged off unwillingly by force, but because he gave himself totally and utterly for her.  There was nothing that love could do for the Messiah's people that he did not do.  Although the crucifixion plays a central role in Paul's thought in almost every topic, nowhere else outside this passage is it so lyrically described as an act of complete, self-abandoning love…
     Back there in Genesis, even before human rebellion had tainted the world in general, and the relation between the sexes in particular, he sees a glimmer of God's ultimate intention in creation.  The man - the Messiah - will leave the place where he was at home, and go in search of a bride. Read Philippians 2.6-11 or Colossians 1:15-20 in the light of this rich and fascinating truth about God himself, and the truth about how we live out our most precious relationships, intertwine and create a God-given beauty the world never dreams of. 

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Te Prison Letters. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p67,68.

     Do you know what Paul and Bishop N.T. Wright is talking about? Is there anything in this passage can help you to have a better marriage and a more blessed family? 

     

Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: Husbands, take the role of Jesus to love your wife

    What I got from Jesus today is the secret and key to a good marriage and a blessed family. Lots of time when women read this passage they think that Paul is not fair. How come Paul asks them to submit to their husbands. Actually this is not the case. What Paul really wants to deal with are husbands. Why? You need to know that two thousand years ago all wives submitted to their husbands due to the culture and tradition at that time. Not now! That's why Paul needs to tell the husbands they need to take the role of Jesus to love our wives.

    The key verse is actually in verse 21. Out of the reference for Christ as our King that we submit to Him, we can submit to each others because we are willing to listen and obey to Jesus' command to submit to each others.

    So, husbands, take the role of Jesus to love your wives. Then, your wife will also take the role of Jesus to love you and to sacrifice everything for you.
    
Dear Lord Jesus,
Lead us to be able to take the role of you to love our wives. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

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This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)

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