Ephesians 81-82_26a Ephesians 5:22-33
Ephesians 1981-82 Corps Teachings. Lesson 23 Part 1: Ephesians 5:22-23.
Format: AUDIO
Publication Date: 1981-82
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
EPHESIANS 5:22-33
April 21, 1982
Well, Chapter 5 of Ephesians [chuckles]. Says in King James—and I’m getting a cup
of coffee, right there girl. Thank you. She’s quarter Indian, look at her cheeks {audience
laughter}. You can see I’ve had a tremendous day. My sense of humor is very well, or
something. {audience continues to laugh}. And I know Mr. Ol’house, I know you are
going to have a birthday on Friday [laughter]. I’m up on some of these things, you know.
Well anyways, if I don’t get into this Mrs. Wierwille won’t speak to me when she comes to
the Indiana campus tomorrow. She’ll be arriving—we’ll take her to the woods and put her
to work if she comes early, won’t we? [audience and Dr. Wierwille laugh].
Oh, bless your heart. It says in 22, almost hate to read this to you {audience laughter}.
“Wives,” lay down, get hit, uh…no {audience laughter}. Better learn to read here [chuckles].
Ephesians 5:22
…submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Well…yeah. In one sense, and I think this is a great sense in which this word “submit”
must be understood, that it is to set in proper order. To set in proper order. The comparison
here is between a husband and wife becoming one flesh as believers are to be one in Christ.
And the reason this whole section is set in here is to make the teaching of the one God so
simple that you’ve got to be stupider than stupid to miss it. That’s why it’s in here. It’s still
all dealing with one God. That’s why immediately when you read that 22 even from…from
King James, it says, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own…?” What? See. Not sixteen
other husbands. That would be idolatry, too many gods. Your own husband, see? Like the
husband and wife becoming one flesh, so the believer who submits himself to Jesus Christ
becomes one in unity and purpose with him. You understand?
The illustration of submission ties into the context of walking in love versus serving
many other gods. If you’re really walking in love, you’ll serve only one what? God. If
you’re will…really walking in love, you will have only one wife or one husband.
Sometimes you will see husbands that are sweet on everyone else or wives, sweet on
everybody else except their own wife or their own husband. That’s a bunch of stupidity.
See. You ought to be sweet on the one who deserves your sweetness.
This “submit yourself ” referring to the wife here simply is that the wife knows her
place in the order of life, like a believer knows his place in relationship to Christ his lord.
Understand? Jesus Christ is my lord. I know my place. That’s the word “submit.” It’s like a
doulos. I’m marked as a son of God. But how did I get marked? By the freedom of my
what? I confessed with my mouth the Lord Jesus and I believed in my heart that God
raised him from the dead. Then I was saved. I was marked out. But I chose, I made a free
will decision, to accept him as my savior and speaking in tongues and believing what His
Word says makes him my lord. So I submit myself to the Word, honey. I submit. That’s
this word “submit,” in proper order. I submit myself to the Word as a son of God. [Sighs.]
The literal translation according to usage. I gave it to you and I ain’t got…here it is,
here it is.
Ephesians 5:22 Literal translation according to usage
Wives subject yourselves to your husbands as he is your lord.
Now here’s the expanded one.
Ephesians 5:22a Expanded translation
Wives by your own deliberate freedom of the will…
(Somebody took my coat away. Feel like Joseph [audience and Dr. Wierwille laugh]).
Ephesians 5:22b Expanded translation
…deliberate freedom of the will you got married…
(Thank you sir. That must be revelation {audience chuckles}. Well, I don’t care what
you’re going to do, thank you. Just get lit up, go on, that’s enough. Goodbye.) Well, you
got married didn’t ya? Freedom of the will.
Ephesians 5:22c Expanded translation
…so be loving, obedient, an absolute doulos to your husband as he is your
lord.
Now verse 23, in King James reads.
Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the
church: and he is the saviour of the body.
This is a real emphasis, a real great learning on the word “husband” here in verse 23,
because it’s a different word than the one used in 22. It means the strong man [chuckles];
the strong man, and that’s wonderful. He is to be a man of strength. The husband is not
some copped out weakling. How could a copped out weakling husband lead a woman?
That’s his wife. The man has to prepare himself. And the man, the husband, has to be the
strong man, the man with strength.
“Husband…the head of the wife” is a figure of speech, a Metaphor, where the husband
is compared to the head of the wife like Christ is compared to the head of the Church.
The word “as” compares the relationship between husband and wife with the
relationship between Christ and the Church. It is literal. It is not a figure of speech. The
wife is never used figuratively, never, of the Church of the Body. So we just have to keep
these things straight.
And this phrase “and he is the savior of the body”—The word “savior” literally is life
giver. How could a weak man as a husband be a life giver, a giver of life to his wife and
family? It’s impossible.
The word “and” and “is” are not in the text of course.
The comparison here is beautiful.
The literal translation of verse 23 is:
Ephesians 5:23 Literal translation according to usage
Because the husband is head of the wife like Christ is the head of the body
the Church, the life giver to the body of the Church.
Now this is the expanded one, and I really put a great deal of effort into this to make it
as living and real to our Corps as possible.
Ephesians 5:23 Expanded translation
Because of this responsible position of the husband, the lord of his wife, he
functions as the head of his wife like Christ functions as the head to the
born-again believers of the Church, that is to say, the husband is the life
giver, the one who makes his wife whole like Christ is the life giver making
whole the body of the Church.
That’s beautiful. How tender this section really is in here if people just believed it. If
they don’t, it’s their problem, but this is the Word, and the Word is tender, the Word is
beautiful, it’s wonderful.
Verse 24. “Therefore,…” in King James.
Ephesians 5:24
…as the church is subject unto [whom?] Christ, so let the wives be to their
own husbands in every thing.
The word “therefore” here sets the headship of verse 23 in contrast with subjection in
this verse. I love the Aramaic because there it is a participle indicating a continuous action.
It is not something you just do once and then blow it and then come back to it. It is a
continuous action. And this comparison here is in respect to care, wholeness—wholeness,
protection. This is perhaps a good place to teach this part of Ephesians from, because we
have beautiful husbands and wives and we’ve got wives that are divorced and are beautiful
and husbands that are divorced and are beautiful. But should be great learning. If you are
divorced [taps four times], some place along the line, either the husband or wife, in this
care…he, he,...like the husband, he really didn’t have the care for you as his wife. He
didn’t make you feel and be all whole, wholeness. He didn’t give you that loving
protection that a wife deserves to have. There is never a divorce unless there’s a breaking
of the Word. But the reason you have so many is that nobody knows the dumb—Word.
And even some that don’t [sic—do]…won’t…don’t want to renew their minds, so they go
through the same process.
Verse 24, literal translation is:
Ephesians 5:24 Literal translation according to usage
But as the Church is subject to Christ so also wives be subject to your
husbands in everything.
Expanded, verse 24.
Ephesians 5:24 Expanded translation
But even as the Church is absolutely and continuously a slave to the head,
Christ, so also the wives to their husbands in everything.
You see, God as head of Christ is Christ’s lord. Christ as head of the husband is the
husband’s lord. Man as head of wife is the wife’s lord. The husband as head of the wife is
the wife’s lord. That’s how it fits.
Verse 25, in King James, through verse 27 is a parenthesis. And it’s a beautiful parenthesis
for our learning, because a parenthesis deals not with the Church of the Body, but
with the Church of the bride.
And King James, verse 25 reads:
Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave
himself for it;
The word “it” is the word “her”; “loved the church and gave himself for her” is literally
“he lovingly gave himself for the Church.”
The literal translation of verse 25, which begins the parenthesis now. Don’t forget, put
put…start the parenthesis here and close it after verse 27.
Ephesians 5:25a Literal translation according to usage
(Husbands…
This is the literal, verse 25.
Ephesians 5:25b Literal translation according to usage
…love your wives like Christ loved the church of the bride, yes, even
giving up himself for her.
The expanded.
Ephesians 5:25 Expanded translation
(Husbands lovingly love your wives even as Christ also in his manner loved
his bride, the Church, and gave up himself, laid down his life, died for the
Church of the bride, Israel.
Now verse 26, King James.
Ephesians 5:26
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
The word “it” again in verse 26 is “her.”
“Sanctify” means to set apart.
And the word “cleanse” here, Corps, means to make it so pure that there is not one iota
of a foreign mixture of any kind.
The literal translation of verse 26 is:
Ephesians 5:26 Literal translation according to usage
That he might set her apart and make her pure with no added mixture by
being bathed with the water even the Word.
Now the expanded one of verse 26. “In order that he would set her apart—”
Ephesians 5:26 Expanded translation
In order that he would set her apart in all purity by cleansing her from any
and all impurity with and by the washing of the water of the Word.
Verse 27, King James. [Exhales].
Ephesians 5:27
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or
wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
The word “it” again in this verse is the feminine: present her but that she should be
holy.
These words “that he might present” was used—these words were used in the
sacrificial offering and in the sacrificial sense means to offer or to present a sacrifice that
you stand beside of. I put it in words that I understand perfectly, namely, raise up, raise up
to stand beside.
The “glorious church” or the ekklēsia, the called out of Israel, and the word “glorious”
is also translated “honored, notable, splendid.” I sort of like the word “gorgeous.” It’s a
her.
“Not having spot or wrinkle” is a dandy, “or any such thing.” It’s a great Orientalism
where if a certain son in a family was going to ha…get betrothed to a girl, they had to find
a girl, and so the way they did this was the females in the house of the young man, the
mother, sisters, aunties, see? They’d been casting their eyes around for a long time in the
community, vicinity, checking out bloodlines knowing all this stuff, and so they zero in on
a young lady, a young maiden, and so the mother, the sisters, grandma, the aunties, they
pay a morning visit at the home of the parents of this young lady and when they call at the
door they call her by name and they ask for something to be brought to them by the hands
of the daughter of the house. And that immediately signals to dad and mom and the rest of
them that this is really an official deal. Somebody’s looking for a beautiful wife. And so
the eldest daughter, the unmarried daughter is required to wait on the visitors and while she
brings these things to them, they look her over but good. See. Like Justin Wilson says,
“She was so good looking he looked her down one side and looked her straight up on the
other side.” She was that good looking [laughter]. I didn’t say that, Justin did {audience
laughter}, I’m just quoting Justin [laughter].
I love the Orientalisms. They are beautiful and how they did some of these things. And
you know, we can laugh all we want to laugh and make fun of the Bible and how they did
things, but after they got married they went on a honeymoon for a year {audience
laughter}. Good lord. Yeah, all bills paid, everything else. That would be sort of neat.
Maybe if some of our men and women went on a honeymoon for a year, they wouldn’t get
divorced the following week afterwards. They’d learn to live with each other. But now,
you know, you get married, jump in the sack tonight, take one week off or something, to, I
don’t know, break each other in I suppose, whatever you do, and then boy, back to the
slave shop. She works, he works. You know, good morning, have a cup of coffee, a burnt
toast and somebody reads the Wall Street Journal. Go to work again. Live with each other
for fifteen years and never know each other. It all started without spot and without wrinkle.
They’d look her over good, because if she has furrows in her forehead, they know she’s a
worrier. They won’t go any further. This is why it’s talking about without spot and without
wrinkle, because the wrinkles were considered very undesirable because it indicated that
she worried; she did not trust God. And if she wouldn’t trust God, she wouldn’t trust her
husband who is her lord. As a matter of fact, text says “God.” See?
That’s why Jesus Christ wanted the bride to be without spot or wrinkle.
Well this wonderful verse [chuckles], translated literally is, verse 27: “And he will
raise her…” You see why I used the word “raise”? Gave it to ya. Sacrifice—
Ephesians 5:27 Literal translation according to usage
…he will raise her the gorgeous Church himself without spot or wrinkle or
any such thing and she will be holy and blameless.
Expanded. “And he will raise her, the bride himself…”
Ephesians 5:27 Expanded translation
And he will raise her, the bride himself, and stand beside her as a sacrifice
with no blemish in her and no wrinkle with nothing like these but she will
be separated out without blemish.
It’s a wonderful verse.
That’s the end of the parenthesis. That’s why you can go directly from verse 24 to
verse 28. Verse 24, remember the literal? Wives be subject to your own husbands in, what?
Everything. Then you have the illustration of the Church of the Bride and it goes back in
verse 28 to the husband and wife and the Church of the Body.
Twenty-eight in King James reads:
Ephesians 5:28
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself.
Sure a lot of love in that verse. Three of them which are figure of speech, successive
[sic?] clauses 16 or sentences. The order of the Aramaic words I’d like for you to put down,
because it’s rather awkward in one sense, but it’s accurately and beautifully true. “For he
who to his wife is loving, he himself is loving.” Isn’t that pretty?
Literal translation.
Ephesians 5:28 Literal translation according to usage
So it is right and proper for husbands to love their wives as their own body
of one flesh for the husband who is loving in this manner of his wife is truly
[is truly] loving of himself.
Verse 29, in King James.
Ephesians 5:29
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it,
even as the Lord the church:
You see, we’re back to the original again of the Church of the Body, comparing it with
husband and wife. If a husband has three or four wives, it’s like three or four gods, and
that’s why this section of the Word is still dealing with idolatry and using the relationship
of a husband and wife to show it and the relationship of Christ to the bride to begin with,
because in the bride, the Church of the bride you have two, the bride and the bridegroom.
In the Body of the Church you have only one with Christ the head.
Men, this verse says no man ever hated his own flesh. Is that the one I’m on? No, I’m
on 28, am I not?
Ephesians 5:28
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself.
So ought men to love their wives. It does not say wives obey [taps four times]. They put
that in the old marriage ceremony from paganism and Roman Catholicism. There is not
one command in the Word that wives have to obey. Commanded to submit, but no
command to obey. Well submission—obeying is for children, remember?
16 Ellipsis of succeeding clause?
Ephesians 6:1
Children, obey your parents…
This stuff. Husbands are to love their wives. The wives are to be set in proper order to
their husbands. Submit. And husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the Church.
That just is not meaning go out and get the bread and butter, bring the check home and she
blows it. That’s not what it’s talking about. That’s part of it, but that, there’s a lot more to
it. I think it’s basically been on the material when—first should come the spiritual end.
Christ loved the Church spiritually. He even loved the Church to where he laid down his
life for it. That is love. And men if you want to get the maximum out of your wife, love
her. She’ll never get too much of that. A wife can get enough hell in one minute. You
cannot give her enough love in twelve hours. She’ll always take more, because that is that
one thing that makes her all woman. That’s the one thing that will take the wife and make
her the most beautiful wife she can be is if the husband loves her. Now that includes a lot
more than crawling in the sack, a lot more than sex. It includes in our culture perhaps kiss
her when you’re headed for the breakfast table [chuckles]. Pinch her a little on the rear
when you’re headed for the breakfast table, cause that’ll get you around to the front at
night or something [audience and Dr. Wierwille laugh]. Marriage has become so…you
know, so degraded in our culture. It’s unbelievable. See.
Where is the tenderness, the kindness, the beauty. And a woman is so made by God in
the beginning, and fellows, you’re not going to change it. God said He made it and formed
it, and when He looked at it He said, man is that ever very good {audience laughter}. And
how husbands have mistreated their wives is almost unbelievable.
I’m also talking about Way Corps. Sometimes I think you men are afraid of the Way
women. They are too darn good for you or something. And you’re afraid you can’t keep up
with them. Well, if you’ve got that problem, why don’t you improve yourself ? If I was a
Way man…Way Corps man looking for a woman, I’d get me a strong one, one that was
that kind of woman. Anybody can get a “skriblelappen”—that’s a German word [audience
and Dr. Wierwille laugh]. That means a wet wash rag {audience laughter} or something.
See.
Men, this is tremendous for us. Look, men ought to love their wives. Love their wives
[chuckles]. Yeah. Three times that word “love” or so forth is used in to the…in the verse.
And I did the literal as follows for us men.
Ephesians 5:29a Literal translation according to usage
For no one ever disliked his body…
And that, people, is true for the natural man. When you see a natural man or a man who
does not like his own body, he’ll be spirit possessed. Every natural man or the nature of
man is to like his own body. I’d like to turn it around and say well how could you expect
anybody else to like you if you don’t like yourself.
Ephesians 5:29b Literal translation according to usage
…no one ever disliked his body but nourishes it…
Nourishes it is in the essence of bringing it up to full maturity, full effervescence, full
glow. [Sighs.] See, it’s this what I mean when I say “be a man’s man.” Understand? I use
that phrase where you’re God’s man. You’re a man’s man again, stand up tall, shoulders
back, head up, walking like a wonderful man of God. That’s this word nourishes.
Ephesians 5:29a Literal translation according to usage
For no one ever disliked his body but nourishes it and cares for it…
That’s the word “cherisheth” in the King James. Cares for it.
You know, it doesn’t hurt to brush your teeth once a year {audience laughter}. Take
care of your fingernails, your hair. It doesn’t hurt you. Cares for it—Avon knocking at
your door, fellows—that’s this word [chuckles]. It comes from the root word meaning
caring for your body like a mother cares for the baby she nurses. That’s the word “care”.
And I want to tell you, a mother nursing her baby whom she loves is very tender, very
beautiful, very exciting. That’s why we care for our bodies. We take care of ourselves
physically that we don’t stink all the time. You know, it doesn’t hurt to take a bath
occasionally. Keep your body clean, care for your body. Why? Because you are a husband,
and you’re supposed to smell good to your wife. What wife wants to crawl in bed with a
man at night that’s all stinky? Look, I didn’t write the Word and you’re supposed to be
Corps [taps three time]. Cares for it, cares for it. And I love The Way Ministry because our
men do this, care for their bodies, take care of it. Remember some of you the days of your
old hippie, long hair, dirty, filthy. That couldn’t have been Ephesians chapter 5, verse 29.
[Chuckles.] Huh? Cares for it.
Ephesians 5:29b Literal translation according to usage
…even as Christ the lord cares for the Church.
Now here’s the expanded one.
Ephesians 5:29a Expanded translation
For no man at any time dislikes his body…
I figured you ladies would like the following translation.
Ephesians 5:29b Expanded translation
…but keeps it at top efficiency,…
Thought of Moses when I used that word.
Ephesians 5:29c Expanded translation
…keeps it at top efficiency, nourishing it to have mature health and strength
and takes tender loving care of his body even as Christ the lord also does of
his Church of the Body.
Verse 30, in King James reads:
Ephesians 5:30
For we are members of his body, [and] of his flesh, and of his bones.
The last four words must be scratched.
“Members of his body” and of “of his flesh”—the members of the body here is a figure
of speech, a Metaphor. Really not much to say about it except give you the literal. Verse
30.
Ephesians 5:30 Literal translation according to usage
Because we’re members of his body.
Is the literal. The expanded is:
Ephesians 5:30 Expanded translation
Because we are individually important members of Christ’s body who is the
head of the Church.
Verse 31, in King James.
Ephesians 5:31
For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh.
This is a quotation from Genesis. The entire verse, you know, is a figure of speech,
Gnome, g-n-o-m-e, means a quotation, a citation, and it’s from as you know Genesis
chapter 2, verse 24.
Husband and wife become one flesh, so believers by submitting themselves one to
another in the reverence of Christ become one in Christ.
This word “joined” is the word “cleave,” cleave to each other. When I thought of…of
the word to be used here, I thought of Elmer, Elmer’s, glued is the word. Glued.
[Chuckles.]
Literal translation of verse 31.
Ephesians 5:31 Literal translation according to usage
Because of this the husband will leave his father and mother and will cleave
to his wife and the two will become one flesh.
Expanded translation, 31.
Ephesians 5:31 Expanded translation
Because of this the man will leave his father and his mother and will be
ultimately glued together and cleave to his wife and the two will become
one flesh.
In the walk of believers as well as in the walk of husbands and wives, I don’t care how
sweet you are on her or she on you, the day you get married you are not glued yet. The
moment you got born again, you haven’t glued your life into the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s
Christ in you. That I know. But you haven’t renewed your mind yet. That’s why this verse
really has, in the translation I gave you, really has some real indepth truth in it and it’s
literally…na, it’s a…it’s a ex…, you know, it’s an expansion, it’s a…stuff that I do in
translation, but I can back all of this up with the texts. You see, when you get married,
you’re married to that woman, you leave all those other girlfriends; when you get born
again, you leave all these other gods. That’s the idea [taps four times] behind it all. Three
thous…two thousand years and the church still has three gods. That’s why I translated it,
kids, as follows: “Be ultimately glued together and cleave to his wife and the two will
become one flesh.” That’s how it works.
Verse 32, King James.
Ephesians 5:32
This is a great mystery:…
[Chuckles.] I love it. You see, that word “flesh” in that previous verse is, well…the
word “flesh” is put for the whole man, all his emotions, all his heart, all his thoughts,
everything else. Then in this verse, this is a great mystery. See. [Chuckles.] Yeah.
I have received two things I have appreciated greatly in my life. Both of them were
books, and everybody knows how much I love books. Who was it up here who said they
were a book worm? No, that was that at International last Friday or something. Uh, that’s
right. Gave me a book. I opened it up and all it had in it was leaves on the inside. Nothing
written on it except the last page, “What every many knows about a woman.” That’s what
was written {audience laughter}. Less than a month ago the greatest Bible publishing
company in America sent me a Bible. It is absolutely wonderful. It has only part of…only
a portion of the word printed on the front page. The rest of the Bible are all…Bible’s all
blank pages. And I thought, what a symbol of our day and of our time in which we live
about what people know about the Word. Nothing. Blank pages. It’s the truth. Wish I had
it here to show it to you. The reason they sent it to me was because they want to do a
complete Bible for The Way, but I’ll never give that one up because to me, it’s real timely.
What people know about the Word—blank! [Laughter.] First page only has a little bit of
the Word on it. I got real blessed getting that.
Yeah well, shoot. Am I in verse 32? Great mystery, the woman. You fellows know
that. But he says he’s speaking about Christ and what? the Church. [Chuckles.] Well,
what’s the great mystery in this verse?
You know what the mystery is? How a husband and wife can get it together and
become one flesh. That’s the mystery. How after you’ve been out in the world and you get
born again, getting it together with one God and His wonderful son, Jesus Christ, great
mystery. He’s speaking regarding Christ and the what? the Church. Right? That’s what he
said. That’s what he meant.
See, the Church is a Body. Christ is the head of that Body like the husband is the head
of the wife. Getting it together, people, getting it together. To me, it’s just beautiful.
Listen to this literal. Well, the expanded is better but listen to the literal. I got to stick
by the Greek and the Aramaic in the literal.
Ephesians 5:32 Literal translation according to usage
This mystery is great, but I’m speaking about Christ and his Church.
That’s the literal of verse 32. Now here’s the expanded. I’m speaking—
Ephesians 5:32 Expanded translation
I am speaking about this mystery of a husband and a wife becoming one
flesh which is great so Christ is the head of the Church of the Body which is
one like the husband is head of the wife and they are one.
There it is. “I am speaking about this mystery of a husband and a wife becoming one
flesh, which is great. So Christ is head of the Church of the Body which is one, like the
husband is the head of the wife and they are one.” See, when I’m born again of God’s
spirit, Christ is my lord. He is the head. But one person does not make up the Body. It
takes at least two [chuckles], and inside of the Church of the Body there’s only one Christ
and he is the head. That’s why this record here in Ephesians 4 in King James reads as
follows, 4:5 listen to this “one Lord, one faith, one…” what? {baptism}, “one God.” “One
body,” in verse 4, “one hope of your calling.” The building into this oneness. And
remember—did I teach here Sunday night? Taught here didn’t I? 1 Corinthians, that verse
10, I handled. Boy, this is what it’s talking about, people.
1 Corinthians 1:10
…I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that [you]
all speak the same thing,
[Taps five times.] Think of a husband and wife, one flesh, one. The church of the
Body, one. We all speak what? I want to tell you, the born-again believers don’t all speak
the same thing. Why not? Because they have never renewed, submitted, to the Word, the
lordship of Jesus Christ [taps]. They talk about him being lord, but they don’t do his will,
because [begins tapping] they do not know His [tapping ends] Word. To me, this is one
tremendous section in God’s Word, people. Speak the same things, same mind—same
mind, same judgment. Boy, when a husband and wife, same mind, same judgment, speak
the same thing, that husband and wife have become one flesh.
Verse 33, in King James.
Ephesians 5:33
Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as
himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
“See that she reverence”—The Aramaic text literally is “should be reverencing.” A
wife should have a profound respect for her husband. She should be very affectionate to
him…toward him. As a matter of fact, she ought to be awed by him. She ought to awe him,
respect, admiration, be proud of him.
The Greek is hina phobētai, and I understand one of you here in the Corps is doing
your paper on this word, phobētai. I forget who it was…heard about it, see. It’s an
exhortation as it’s used here meaning she should reverence, should have awe, should have
respect, should be prouder than a peacock of her husband. That’s the idea behind it.
The literal translation of verse 33 is as follows:
Ephesians 5:33 Literal translation according to usage
Nevertheless everyone of you husbands so love your wife even as yourself
and the wife should reverence her husband.
And the following is the expanded.
Ephesians 5:33 Expanded translation
So it is you as a husband love your wife even as yourself and the wife
should have a profound reverence, respect, admiration and affection for you
as her husband.
Well, that’s the end of that chapter, but that’s not the end of the dealing of it, because
it’ll go all the way into the next chapter, the same subject.
I do not know why people have had so many difficulties with this section of the Word
except that we refuse to want to hear it and believe it. That’s the only problem I see with it.
I think the fault has been on both sides if there’s been any. See. I think husbands have not
been properly instructed nor have the wives been properly instructed. And so we enter into
marriage ignorant because we have not been taught the Word [taps], and until people know
the Word, there’s no use crying about it. They can’t do the Word because they don’t know
it. But it’s our privilege as Corps and our responsibility before God to set the beauty of this
section of Ephesians for God’s people that they again get an understanding, and then in
turn they can teach it to their children, and the children can teach it to their children. The
Word has to permeate the hearts of our people. And that’s why I’m so grateful and
thankful for this beautiful section here in the Book of Ephesians.