Eph 5:30-32; Gen 2:20b-24 This is a great mystery (raz) (see also 1Tim 3:16), but I speak concerning Christ and the Church: for we are members of His body – of His flesh and of His bones
–vital union
–If we grasp the high calling of the marriage relationship, it can transform our whole attitude towards our own marriages – towards our wife or our husband.
1Cor 12:12-14,20,24b-27 For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Messiah. For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body – whether Jews of Greeks, whether slaves or free – and have all been made to drink into one Spirit. For in fact, the body is not one member but many. . .But now indeed are many members, yet one body. . .But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or, if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the Body of Messiah, and members individually.
–Each person is significant.
–The collective/corporate whole gives significance to each part.
–Messiah is the Head; we are His body.
Eph 5:21-29 . . .submitting to one another in the fear of God. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the Church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the Church is subject to Messiah, so the wives to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Messiah also loved the Church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the Church. [Masochism is, therefore, sin, and also demonic.]
Gen 2:18-25 And YHVH God said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.’ Out of the ground YHVH God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. And YHVH God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh in its place. (Jn 19:33-34) Then the rib which YHVH God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. And Adam said, ‘This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.’ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.
–When we are honest with each other about who we are, and love each other, there is no shame between the husband and his wife in their ‘nakedness’.
Ps 45:11-12,18 (10-11,17 Eng) Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your ear; forget your own people also, and your father’s house. So the King will greatly desire your beauty; because He is your lord, worship Him. . .I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore the people shall praise You forever and ever.
–wives given to their husband and to his position in life
–the honor of the wife/Queen bestowed upon her from her husband/King, and she honors him (Pr 31)
Jn 15:4-5 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me, you can do nothing. Christ in us, and we in Him!
