Episode 297 - A Really Obscure Holiday

Today's episode begins with Robert quizzing Peter on this obcure holiday. Then, they discuss Ephesians 5:21-27

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:27

And welcome back to another episode of Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. We are just thrilled beyond your wildest dreams that you are listening. Because we're we're starting to scare 10,000 downloads. Wow. We're starting to scare that number. We're getting close. And by the time you know these all air and everything, we may be at that point.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

Okay. Is that a big goal for you? 10,000 downloads?

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Well, it's just a it's it's major.

SPEAKER_01 0:57

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 0:57

It's a it's a major goal.

SPEAKER_01 0:59

I mean, I'm still hoping for a listener in Antarctica. Right. And someone from outer space.

SPEAKER_00 1:04

Well, those those are two.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

It could be an astronaut, it could be an alien. I don't really care. I just someone.

SPEAKER_00 1:10

Just someone. Yeah. I I think the 10,000 would be uh be another accomplishment. Okay. All right. All right. Well, I have an obscure holiday for you today. What is it? Today. Uh-huh. Today is Root Canal Appreciation Day.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

No way. Who made that?

SPEAKER_00 1:30

It is a true day. They celebrate it every year. Root have you ever had a Root Canal? No. I haven't either. Um I know people that have, and they're they're thankful for them. I don't think so. Maybe after the fact. After the fact. No. Here's what this says here. A Root Canal Appreciation Day is observed every year on the second Wednesday in May. Okay? This year takes place on May 13th. The holiday was created by in 2005 by Chris Cammer, who is one of America's most vocal advocates for the moral systemic approach of prevention and disease. He made it up.

SPEAKER_01 2:10

So we celebrated by what? Going out and getting a root canal?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

That's what I wanted to know.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Or eating candy.

SPEAKER_00 2:17

I don't know. I don't know. It's just an appreciation day. So I just wanted you to know that root canals have their own day.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

Well, when Hallmark makes a card, I will celebrate it, okay?

SPEAKER_00 2:31

And I think they probably have one. You never know. I don't know. All right. Well, thank you so much. Have I introduced ourselves? I'm Robert Wakefield. I'm Peter Sears. Okay, thank you so much for uh letting me do that. We are in Ephesians chapter 5, and we're going to begin today in verse 21 and go through 27. This is a really rich section right here. Yeah, he's taking another turn.

SPEAKER_01 2:54

Yeah. He he's getting he's meddling in our houses.

SPEAKER_00 2:58

He really is. So let's uh let's read those right now and we'll discuss it.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Starting in verse 21, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with the water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

All right, so that is the word of the Lord. So when we start in verse 21, uh it it talks about submit to one another. So when I think of the way he is starting this section, it makes me think of a newspaper headline.

SPEAKER_01 3:59

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:00

Okay. Submit. Yeah. And everything that's underneath this article is going to be related to that word. I you're right. Okay. That is what happened. So so I I think of that because I think it's just really it it's just everything that's going to follow from this is going to hinge on this first word.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:19

And it's it's not this is not a negative thing. This is a relationship thing. Yeah. I mean, I want your thoughts. Is that kind of what you're thinking on that? Some of that?

SPEAKER_01 4:29

You know, I don't know how Paul's readers took it, uh, but I'm going to think it's the same way. I think there's something in our humanity. We hate the word submit. We do. I think we just like if that's the headline, submit, I don't think we're going to read the rest of the text. May not. Because I don't want to submit to anybody. Right. You know, all I want to do is submit to the things that I want to be submissive to. And that's a really short list. It's all the things that makes Peter happy.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

Doesn't take much. And so when when we hear the word submit, you know, even if it's to one another or or even to Christ, we go, there's something in us that just kind of bucks up and says, uh no, don't want to do that. Because what it's telling us to do is to move from selfishness to selflessness.

SPEAKER_00 5:18

Right. And we don't want to do that as a whole. No, we don't. We don't want to do that at all. Um this guy wrote this, he says, uh, submit is a mutual posture and not a one-way command. Yeah. It means voluntarily placing oneself in a posture of service for the good of the other. Yeah. Which is which is basically what you just said.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, and that's that's good to keep in mind because we can really get the next few verses out of context if if we make it anything other than what you said. That's the definition. Voluntary and mutual. Right. Is is really the the theme of this. Okay. And and if we're submitting to the Lord, he's not going to make us do anything that is anything but glorifying to him. Right. I mean, so yeah, there's some things that God can ask us to do where we go, I'm not sure if I want to do that. But he's not saying this is going to bring you harm, this is going to hurt you. It's all things that uh are are for our best and for our good.

SPEAKER_00 6:17

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:17

And so, like again, it's voluntary and it's mutual.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

And it's mutual. So that's what this guy writes in verse in verse 22. He says, it talks about wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as to the Lord. Um he writes that in the Greek verse 22 doesn't even contain the verb submit. It borrows it from verse 21. And he says Paul is continuing the same thought, mutual submission expressed in different ways. Yes. So that's true. That's that's how he's talking about that. So uh what Paul is not saying, according to this, this is what I read, okay? He is not saying that uh women are inferior, right? He's not saying that husbands are dictators, right? And he's not saying oh wives have to obey sin or abuse. Right. So what are your thoughts on that?

SPEAKER_01 7:03

Yeah, you know, we we and and honestly, there's been sermons that have been portrayed like this. Exactly. And and um and there's some women that feel like these verses are saying, you gotta be a doormat, you're you know, it's this uh I gotta I gotta do all these things that you know I gotta dress a certain way and have meals prepared a certain way and greet a certain way, and and and they lose their identity, they're doing everything as a servant for their husband. That's not what this is talking about at all. At all um because it is voluntary, it's mutual love, there's unity, there's respect. And and I don't think anybody would has a problem submitting to someone who has their back, who loves them deeply, who wants the best for them. When um when I was in seminary, we took a to a marriage class about how to do marriage counseling, my and my wife and I took it together. And one of the things the the teacher said was uh you know, marriage isn't 50-50, it's a hundred-hundred.

SPEAKER_00 8:10

Oh, good point.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

You know, and so we we look at this, we keep score. There's no score. He says, You should be the fan club of your wife's fan club, uh uh of the the best uh the president of the fan club. The president of the fan club, yeah. And she should be yours. Yeah. And so if if we want them to win, then in turn from them winning, we win ourselves. And so we don't do it out of selfish motivation, we do it out of love. Right.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

And and he and he talks about that uh uh extensively. Uh the the illustration this guy wrote it says uh Vine lean leans on a trellis, not because it is weak, but because the trellis helps it flourish. There you go. Which I thought that was real. And Paul is describing this relationship that's gonna support growth. Yeah. So yeah, I I just you know guys have taken advantage of this verse way too long. Yeah. And it's not that's not what it's talking about.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

No, honestly, if if you look at what husbands are charged to do in these verses, it it's we've got to do it as Christ does. And the example is how Jesus did it for the church. That's that's high.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

That that's a high standard. Yeah, that really is. So let's go to verse uh twenty-five. You got verse twenty-five in front of you. I don't have that in front of you.

SPEAKER_01 9:23

I do have twenty-five. You want twenty-five first?

SPEAKER_00 9:25

Um yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:27

Okay. Husbands love your lives as just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Okay, so yeah. Well, I should have read 22 because we just talked about 22. But yeah, uh, and 23 for the husband is the head of the wife as well. We need to talk about twenty-three.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 9:45

I I I'm I skipped that one. So talk about verse twenty-three of how the the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

Well, you know, Paul makes sure he's being equal here. And and and again, I don't think any wife would submit to a husband who's doing what Paul's outlining here.

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:04

Because I don't think you'd feel like your rights are being violated. I don't think they would treat you as an inferior. I don't think they're gonna, you know, make you subject to everything he wants to do. You're you're an equal. There's this is a partnership. So he he wants to make sure that the husband is is the head of the wife just the way Jesus is the head of the church. Jesus died for the church. Jesus did everything for the church, he's the he's the head of the church. Jesus says he'll build his church. He's he's doing everything he can for the church. If a husband did everything he could to to be supportive and loving and kind and meeting her needs, then then what wife would say, I I can't submit to someone who acts like that.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

Nobody would. Yeah. Oh, what wife or husband. I mean, it would it just wouldn't work. Right. It's the again, it's we have to keep emphasizing it's the mutual uh respect for each other. Yeah, is what it's talking about. All right, so we did do it in 23, uh 24. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands and everything. So talk about verse 24 because that's a that's a controversial verse as well.

SPEAKER_01 11:20

Okay, so when we look at what what has Christ done for the church, picking up in 23, I I I put four things that he does for the church. He he's our protector. He said that you know the gates of hell will not not come against you. So he protects us, he provides for us, he's our comforter and he gives us care. Oh, I love all that. Yeah. And so when when it talks about now the church submits to Christ, how do we submit to Christ? Well, I think one, we do it cheerfully. Paul reminds us constantly, everything we do, whether it's giving our our tithe or we're serving, we need to do it cheerfully. Right. We need to do it with obedience, right? Oh, yeah. You know, not not reluctance. We need to do it with fidelity or loyalty. Oh, yeah. And then we need to do it with humility because it's not about us, it's all about him. Yeah. So that's how the church submits to Christ, and so that's how wives should submit to their husbands in these categories.

SPEAKER_00 12:23

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 12:24

And and again, it's it's for the betterment of the team. You know, going back to what he said in chapter two about the unity of the church, if this is happening in a church, right, you've got great unity. Oh, unity will be easy. Because there's no keeping score, there's no, well, you won the last time, so I'm gonna get this one, or or I don't think that's a very good way for us to spend the the church's money. You know, if if we're the the cheerleaders of everybody else, right except for ourselves, then we want them to win. We do. We want them to excel.

SPEAKER_00 13:00

Absolutely. Good, good point. Good point. So that brings us up to verse 25, I think. Am I right about that?

SPEAKER_01 13:07

Yes, right.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So verse 25, it says, Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by washing with water through the word. There you go. If husbands love their wives as Christ loved the church, that is a huge comparison. Sure. When you think about how much Christ loved the church and what he did for it, which we all know he did, how he gave himself for it, then there's your standard. Yeah. There's your measuring stick, if you will. And if you don't measure up to that measuring stip stick that uh that Christ has given us, uh you're failing as a husband. Right. So talk about that for a second.

SPEAKER_01 13:51

Well, I wanted to make sure we're talking about apples to apples, okay? All right. So I looked up the Greek words here of husbands love your wives, uh just as Christ loved the church. I want to make sure the love is on the same playing field. Remember in John 21, there's two different words for love though. Right. There's there's agape, which is the Christ-like, godlike, unconditional love, and then there's philaleo, which is is more brotherly love. Right. And and we see both. So I'm I'm wondering, you know, what kind of love are husbands expected to have for their wives, and what kind of love does Christ have for the church? And I think we know the answer to that one. Right. They're both agape, agape, yeah. So there's there's four different Greek words for love. And so we could we could love agape, which is selfless, unconditional, uh, looking out more for them than for ourselves. We could love them with Philadelphia, f uh f Phileo, right, uh, which is like I I like them really, you know, I would I would I would hold the door open for them. I would do things, but you know, not sacrificially. And then there's arrows. I just love them erotically. Right. I I I think they're they're good looking and and uh but but it's not that deep love. It's it's very superficial. Right. And and so the expectation is for husbands to agape their wives, just as Christ agape the church.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Oh, that's so good. That's so good. Uh, this is uh this this guy wrote this about the model of Christ's sacrificial love. He talks about that. He says it's self-giving because he gave of himself, it's sanctifying because it it helps, you know, flourish, helps the church flourish. Cleansing, it's nurturing in the word, and presenting, it it's you know, lifting uh lifting your wife up in beauty and honor. So those things that if we do if if husbands do those kinds of things, those sacrificial love like Christ did, our marriage is going to be fantastic. Absolutely. It's gonna be really, really good.

SPEAKER_01 15:55

Yeah. I think in front of verse 26 we should write the word why. So if we do these things in 25, why is it important? And I think he tells us why it's important in verse 26.

SPEAKER_00 16:07

To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word. And I I think that is just that just sums it up, just makes her holy, cleansing her by the washing of the water through the word. I mean, what else could there be?

SPEAKER_01 16:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:20

Uh that those are just fabulous things.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Well, he's he's shifting here in his imagery. So we've got to pick up on this. He's comparing Jesus as the groom and the church as the bride. Okay. Okay. Right. And so there's this preparation process, this cleansing. It takes me back to the book of Esther. Oh, yeah. And if you remember, there's this whole the the queen was disposed, they're trying to find a new queen. Esther's in this court, there's other people in this harem. And there's a 12-month process that Esther has to go through before she can be presented to the king.

SPEAKER_00 16:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

And so the same thing is true for a bride in this waiting for the wedding day, there's this preparation process. Good. And so I just love that imagery of washing the water through the word, just pouring over, just cleansing.

SPEAKER_00 17:15

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

And so what he's talking about is we just need to let the word of God just pour over us, just saturate us, just drench us in this. And if we've constantly had the word of God going over us, it's going to infuse into our pores. Right. Oh, that's good. It's going to be a part of our thinking. Yeah. And so that's what he's saying. It's such a beautiful picture of what he's saying in verse 26.

SPEAKER_00 17:37

And then that leads right into 27. And to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. Yeah. What a picture that is.

SPEAKER_01 17:49

Yeah. So if you change out the herd to bride and then himself to groom, you know, present the bride to the groom as a radiant church. Just glorious, shining bright. Wow. You know, what groom, you know, typically, I I don't think still do it. I know your your wife does a lot of weddings.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

Oh, yeah, she's a wedding planner.

SPEAKER_01 18:10

Yeah. But you know, typically you don't see the bride the day, and and so the first time is they open up the doors or she comes down the aisle and and what guy hasn't just oh yeah, just you know, takes your breath away. Exactly. And and you know, the the white and the splendor, and they're so beautiful, and you go, Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yes, yeah. This this is this this girl is going to be my wife. She is coming down the aisle to be my wife. This is verse 27. It is.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

And this is how how Christ sees the church.

SPEAKER_00 18:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:44

And this is how we should love our wives, and just think, oh, right. Goodness.

SPEAKER_00 18:49

Look at that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. Because, you know, when you see, when you see your bride in that dress and and knowing that she's coming to be with you, she's going to be your, you know, she's going to be my wife. Yeah. What a great feeling. And Christ feels the same thing about his church. Yeah. That's the way he wants to see us. He sees us there. There's my church.

SPEAKER_01 19:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

Yeah. And that's who I died for.

SPEAKER_01 19:13

You know, in verse 27 at the end, he says that they're holy and blameless. Yeah. And I I would dare say I I would hope there's not a been a a groom, a husband to be that's gone there and well, she's she's okay, but I wish she's holy and blameless. Right. You know, you are the luckiest man. You know, what guy doesn't say, yeah, I I'm married beyond my means.

SPEAKER_00 19:39

Right. I outkicked my coverage. There you go. To use a football reference. All right. These are these are great uh these are great um passages here that we discussed today, and and I just wanted to be sure we we were very sensitive about it because I think, you know, because people have taken this out of context and made it to something that it's not. And so that that's the reason we wanted to take our time on that. So thanks so much for listening to Two Brothers One Bible Podcast. I'm Robert Dwakefield. I'm Peter Sterse, and we will finish up the chapter maybe next time.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

I think so.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Okay. Thanks so much for listening, and God bless.