MEDITATION TEXT : Ephe 5:15-33 Passion Bible

 So be very careful how you live, not being like those with no understanding, but live honorably with true wisdom, for we are living in evil times. Take full advantage of every day as you spend your life for his purposes. And don’t live foolishly for then you will have discernment to fully understand God’s will. And don’t get drunk with wine, which is rebellion;[f] instead be filled continually with the Holy Spirit.  And your hearts will overflow with a joyful song to the Lord. Keep speaking to each other with words of Scripture, singing the Psalms with praises and spontaneous songs given by the Spirit!  Always give thanks to Father God for every person he brings into your life in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

21 And out of your reverence for Christ be supportive of each other in love. 22 For wives, this means being devoted[j] to your husbands like you are tenderly devoted to our Lord, 23 for the husband provides leadership for the wife, just as Christ provides leadership for his church, as the Savior and Reviver[k] of the body. 24 In the same way the church is devoted to Christ, let the wives be devoted to their husbands in everything.

25 And to the husbands, you are to demonstrate love for your wives with the same tender devotion that Christ demonstrated to us, his bride.[l] For he died for us, sacrificing himself 26 to make us holy and pure, cleansing us through the showering of the pure water of the Word of God. 27 All that he does in us is designed to make us a mature church for his pleasure, until we become a source of praise to him—glorious and radiant,[m] beautiful and holy, without fault or flaw.[n]

28 Husbands have the obligation of loving and caring for their wives the same way they love and care for their own bodies, for to love your wife is to love your own self. 29 No one abuses his own body, but pampers it—serving and satisfying its needs. That’s exactly what Christ does for his church! 30 He serves and satisfies us[ as members of his body.

31 For this reason a man is to leave his father and his mother and lovingly hold to his wife, since the two have become joined as one flesh.  Marriage is the beautiful design of the Almighty,[q] a great mystery[r] of Christ and his church.  So every married man should be gracious to his wife just as he is gracious to himself. And every wife should be tenderly devoted to her husband.

 

INTRODUCTION

 

The present marriage situation in this generation, the emerging of homosexual and gay marriages in the church is redefining marriage institution and drift it further away from God’s definition of marriage between one man and one woman. If this continue at this present alarming rate, Christians and especially our children of future generation are going to be faced with more difficult marriage situations. The scariest and of concern to me is that These unbiblical marriage situations – Multi marriages, cohabiting, mixed marriages, trial marriages, gay marriages – are being accepted as norm.

For us to counter and combat this erroneous trend, God needs transformed couples, husband and wife that are ready to be vessels  for God to use and pass through to flush out these present evils.

In this retreat, by God’s grace we are going to be looking at the scripture to learn godly wisdom and counsel embedded in it to transform us and transform our marriages into His own image.

 

TRANSFORMATION OF THE HUSBAND

 

And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. Gen 2:7-8

 

 

We see that in God’s agenda of transformation, it was the man that must experience the transformation first. God has to transform the man from the dust and give him life. So the man knew God first and relate with God. It was God’s idea to found an help meet for him.

 

the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him. Gen 2:18.

 

All that the man knew was God. This is what it should be. The man needs to be transformed by God first.

 

 

B. TRANSFORMATION OF THE WIFE.

And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. Gen 2:21-22

 

We see again here that when the woman was made, the man was in a deep sleep. He has no contribution or suggestion on how the woman will look like. God on His own had to transform the woman from a bone. Here also, it was God’s idea, God was the first person the woman saw and she had relationship with. Man was secondary contact to her.

 

We must learn as husband and wife to be secondary in our marriage and let God be the primary in everything. This is a clear basis of transformation in our marriages. This is what can remove struggle and stress of uncertainty from our marriages. Allow God to work and finish work on your spouse. Sleep and let God work

 

 

COUPLES TRANSFORMATION FROM TREE OF KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL TO TREE OF LIFE (LIFE IN CHRIST)

 

And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Gen 3:2-4

 

And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen 2: 16-17

 

God is looking for transformed couples, so families can be transformed, and God need a transformed family so that church can be transformed and we need transformed church so that our society and nations can be transformed.

 

We saw that the marriage God started began its downward journey out of the plan and purpose of God the day the woman was deceived to embrace and eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is what we need to be transformed from – the knowledge of good and evil- if we want sanity in our marriages and society. We don’t want our marriage to be good before men but evil in the site of God. God want our marriage to be full of life.

 

Our spouse must not be seen or live with as a good man or evil man; that is when it is good, you stay and when it is evil you flee.  we must live with him or her as life. Someone you will stay with for life. God is looking for couples that are ready to be committed beyond ‘good and evil’ and move into life (Christ). Another way to look at the tree of knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life is to look at the marriage uphold by the law (good and evil) and love (Christ).

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS A

What is the outcome of the knowledge of the tree of good and evil in Gen 3:6-24?

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What are the practical implication of these?

 

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iii. What is the way out? Gen 3:22; John 14:6

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Iv. How do we know that a marriage is alive according to Gen 2:21-25

 

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COUPLES TRANSFORMATION FROM LAW TO CHRIST

Romans 7:1-6.

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man. 
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

 

There are two marriages that apostle Paul was explaining to us hear. The two marriages are

Marriage governed by law
Marriage governed by Christ

 

Many of us are operating our marriages by the principles of law because it is the first appealing and acceptable by the world. But unless our marriages is transformed from the realm of law into Christ, it will profit God nothing. As long as the law is alive in our  home, there will not be room for Christ to reign.

 

The bible says that a woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive. If she marry to another while the man is alive, she is an adulteress. This is where it seems many of us are stuck. We are marrying Christ while the law is still alive and operating in our homes. That kind of marriage is ‘ adulterated marriage’.

 

Verse 5 says the law operating mode is the flesh and it can only produce death. That means such marriages will multiply death in our church and society. We do not want this. But verse 4 says if law is dead, we shall bring forth fruit unto God. That is what we are looking for. Fruit unto God and not to the world.

 

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS  B

What are the characteristics of marriages governed by law? Romans 6

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What are the characteristics of marriages governed by Christ? Romans 8

 

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CONCLUSION

Romans 7:6

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.

 

 

Beloved, as you are delivered in this retreat from the governance of the knowledge of tree of good and evil and dominion of law in your marriage, seek to walk in this newness of life by the Spirit of God and do not allow the flesh to ravage your marriage and home.

 

This is the only way you can enjoy tree of life (Life In Christ) in your home. As husband remember that Adam saw God first and was transformed in the absence of his wife. Don’t wait for your wife to be transformed and likewise the wife. Let each of us remember that God is our transformer, we cannot transform each other.