Ephesians 5:22~25 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… God is the Creator. He made everything in the universe to give to man for him to enjoy (Genesis 1:26~28). God formed man and woman and let them be united to each other and let them become one flesh (Genesis 2:21~24). Man came from God, and the institution of marriage is also from God. It is natural for a man and woman to be united in marriage. The moment they become husband and wife, they should not only have the same flesh, but also the same heart, thoughts and will. In today’s Scripture it says that husbands should love their wives as Christ loves the church, and that wives should submit to their husbands as to the Lord. They should love each other with the same everlasting love that God loves us with. Without His love we cannot live. In the same way, husbands and wives need to love each other, for God tells us, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8). Only by God’s love can we keep our families and let them not be separated. God said, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Honor your father and mother -which is the first commandment with a promise - that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” (Ephesians 6:1~3). There are no other religions that emphasize honoring your parents except for Christianity. If you are hypocritical towards your parents and do not know their hearts, you are not respecting them. Children should be grateful to their parents for bringing them up. Firstly, honoring your parents is the commandment of God. Secondly, this is the natural expression for man who has a personality. God commanded us to be devoted to one another in brotherly love (Romans 12:10~11), for this is the command of the Creator. Married couples become one flesh, so their spouse's siblings become their siblings. Therefore they have agreement in God's love and in brotherly love. God said, “’Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Matthew 22:37~40). We can have a happy family with God-given love. The household of faith in Jesus should have love between the husband and wife. And they should also develop brotherly love for their siblings in order to practice the love of God. God let man and woman be united and have one flesh, and let them be fruitful and increase in number. Man has descendents based on the blessing from the Word of God, not because of pleasure. For this reason, we should be parents who will hand down the eternal blessing in heaven to our children more than anything else. Abraham handed his blessing of faith down to his descendents and it became the blessing that the Israelites received. Dear brothers and sisters, let us love one another in the Lord. Be blessed spiritually and physically by God from generation to generation. Let us have a happy and blessed household in Jesus which is able to possess all things, to rule over them, and to enjoy them spiritually and physically.
