August 27, 2024 

Today's Reading: Ephesians 5:22-33

Daily Lectionary: 1 Kings 9:1-9, 10:1-13; 2 Corinthians 5:1-21

In the Name + of Jesus. Amen. “Wives, submit to your husbands…Husbands, love your wives.” Here we have the apostle Paul’s Holy Spirit-inspired instruction for a God-honoring Christ-centered marriage: submission and respect on the part of the wife and selfless, sacrificial love on the part of the husband. This certainly isn’t the kind of picture drawn up in our current day and age of how relationships ought to work. Submissive wives and selfless husbands, the idea seems outdated and offensive.  

Yet, isn’t this how Christ has loved us? Think about how Jesus demonstrated His love for us in His actions. He humbled Himself by becoming a man– God taking on human flesh. He submitted Himself to His Father’s will, even to the point of dying on a cross. He loved selflessly and sacrificially by laying down His life for us, dying our death, taking our punishment upon Himself, and giving up all His rights so that we would have the right to become part of God’s family.  

It is out of this love of Jesus for us that we are now free to love one another; after all, this is the kind of love that the Holy Spirit is working in and through us. What does this kind of love look like? It submits to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21), not just wives to husbands but all of us to one another. As Christ loved us selflessly, giving Himself up for us (Ephesians 5:2), we also live together in this kind of selfless love, not just husbands toward wives, but this love marking all our relationships with each other.  

This kind of love is counterintuitive and most definitely countercultural, but isn’t that the nature of the Gospel? It offends our inclination to want to keep score and get what we deserve. Grace throws all of that out the window and frees us from focusing on ourselves and instead to look to others in love. This is how God has loved you. This is the kind of love God is working in us for others. This is the kind of love a God-given marriage is built upon and how husbands and wives love one another as Christ continues to love them. May our Lord grant us the grace and working of His Spirit to love one another as Christ has loved us. In the Name + of Jesus. Amen.

-Rev. Darrin Sheek, pastor at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church Anaheim, CA.

The new Guiding Word series takes you through all the books of the Bible in six volumes. Starting with the Books of Moses—Genesis through Deuteronomy—you will explore every passage of every chapter of each book with the help of maps, diagrams, links between the testaments, and clarification points.