The Bride of Christ
Marriage: A Taste of Eden and a Foretaste of Home
Ephesians Chapter 5 verses 22-33 (NIV)
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Questions
Context:
- What do you know about the book of Ephesians?
- Skim through/read the headings of chapters 1-3, then chapters 4-6. What differences do you notice?
- According to 2:4-9, who are we as the Bride of Christ? Does looking through the “Bride of Christ” lens give you a different perspective of this passage?
Observation:
- Fill in the chart, noting what commands and descriptions are given to each.
|
Wives |
Husbands |
Christ |
Church |
- Judging solely on the amount of ink spilled, who is the true focus of this passage?
- Does this change the way you view the passage? If so, how?
Interpretation:
- Take each of the descriptions of Christ and make inferences about what this means for the Bride of Christ. Finish the sentence “The Bride of Christ is…”
- Read v. 31, then read John 1:1-2 and 3:16-17. What parallels do you see?
Application:
- The truths we learn about the Church in this passage are true both for the Church collective and each individual within the Church. Read over the inferences again, personalizing them. What does this stir within your heart?
- How should we as the Church respond to our Bridegroom?
- How should we as the Church encourage and respond to one another?
- How could this passage help us think about brokenness in the Church?
- How should this passage encourage/challenge those who are married? Single? Divorced? Widowed?
