Ephesians 5:21-33: A Short Lesson in Focus

It often amazes me to notice the difference in what I get from the scriptures when I approach a book or a passage simply asking what message God has for me in that passage as opposed to when I search out various passages of scripture in order to answer a particular theological question.

That second procedure is not always a bad one; there are questions that can be answered by going to scripture and studying a particular topic. Getting a variety of scriptures that bear on a particular topic can help you keep your balance. Paul addresses the law in both Galatians and Romans (amongst others). You’ll get a more complete understanding if you read both.

Very frequently, however, we view the topical study of scripture as the shortcut method. It’s easier to know topics than it is to know the Bible. But that is the danger. Quickly surveying a topic is a good way to fall into proof-texting, and that is dangerous ground.

What brought this to my mind today in particular was my pastor’s Father’s Day sermon this morning. He used Ephesians 5:21-33, and he pointed to many of the balancing features of the entire passage.

Let me suggest that you read the passage over, and then answer the following two questions:

1. What is the primary focus of this passage?
2. What from that passage have you heard quoted the most?

My suspicion is that if you read the passage carefully, you’ll see it talking about the relationship been husbands and wives, and its focus is on the love that husbands are to have for their wives. This love is to be like the love Jesus Christ had for the church–self-sacrificing love.

Now while I might debate issues of just what submission means and how this applies today. But that’s not my point. Whatever you believe about the structure of the home and authority there, Paul talks only a little bit about authority, secondary to his main point about the way a person in authority is to love, following the example of Jesus.

Now what about the second question? Though I’ve heard quite a number of balanced sermons from this passage in conversations I’ve heard largely verses 21 and 22 quoted. Jesus is really, truly, and absolutely the head of the church (v. 23), and that’s the way the husband is the head of his wife (v. 22). While that fits the words of those two verses, if you add the remainder of the passage, starting with mutual submission (v. 21), and going on to note that the characteristic of Christ’s headship that husbands are asked is self-sacrificing love.

The focus makes a great deal of difference. Now I’m not suggesting that the details of a passage don’t matter. What I am suggesting is that it’s important to see the overall focus–what it was that Paul was most interested in communicating in this case–before applying the details.