Ephesians 5:26-27: Glorify Your Wives

When Lynn and I got married we asked for a full sermon to be preached. Our pastor at the time, Leigh Robinson preached a four point sermon on the purpose of marriage. Marriage is for partnership, marriage is for procreation, marriage is for pleasure, and marriage is for perfection. One of the main goals of marriage is holiness. This is a distinct perspective that Christianity brings to the issue of marriage. For many marriage is about not burning, or not being lonely, or having kids, these are true but a major part of marriage is God’s purpose to make us holy. Paul has been describing how a husband should love his wife as Christ does the church. But in typical fashion Paul can’t allude to Christ without extrapolation, his heart is full of the wonder of what Christ has done for us. He not only talks about Jesus sacrificial love in v25, but goes on to describe a love that keeps on giving, not only to save but to sanctify and ultimately glorify His bride, v26-27, ‘that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.’

So today as we continue our series on marriage we have two things to do, we need to stand amazed with Paul at the work of Christ for the church, and then we need to apply this so how husbands should love their wives.