Husbands & Wives, Christ & His Bride
Ephesians 2:22-33
January 19, 2025 anno Domini
There have been times when I thought I preach too much on sexual immorality to the exclusion of other sins. If you’ve been listening to my sermons (and that’s the point of preaching) you know that living together outside of marriage is a sin, that it is a sin for a boy to think he is a girl or vice-versa. According to God’s Word there is one definition of marriage – one man with one woman for one lifetime. Anything other than that is sinful – sex apart from marriage, homosexuality, divorce, pretending at marriage without being married.
You’ve heard these truths in my sermons, but I don’t think I’ve ever preached on gluttony. After I walk through Wal-Mart or eat out in a restaurant I should. I’ve preached on stewardship, but who among us doesn’t hold on too hard and too long to our possessions? If we held on to God as tightly as our junk, we’d have far less problems and far more faith. I’ve mentioned gossip in my sermons, but that needs more rebuking. Your favorite news is gossip. It isn’t meant to inform. Its goal is to give you the dirt on your neighbor so you can feel better about yourself. What blunder did Biden make? What is Trump’s latest tirade? Here’s the dirt on Democrats. Here’s something to roast the Republicans.
But the more I read God’s Word, the longer I am a pastor, the more I look at the world and examine my own soul, I have concluded I have not preached enough about sexual morality.
There is a difference between sexual sins and all other sins. Sexual sins are against your body, your particularly male or female body, in a way that no other sin is. Gluttony and drunkenness are sins against your flesh, but sexual sins are against more than that. They are against who God made you to be, a man or a woman. If God gives you the blessing of marriage you are also sinning against the person with whom you become one flesh.
The greater problem with sexual sin, as we learn from Saint Paul in Ephesians, is that you being male or female is directly tied to the saving work of Jesus Christ. If you mess with marriage or human sexuality, as so many Christians do, you will also mess up the saving work of Christ.
Listen to what Paul says, “Husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”
Now, I’m going to use a word I’ve never used in a sermon before. It’s not a nice word, but it is a Biblical word. In the King James translation the word is harlot. Our translation isn’t as nice. The word is “whore.” Don’t get mad at me. I only preach here. Take it up with my Boss. This is God’s Word for you.
Whenever we sin, we are whoring after other gods. It’s worse than that. We don’t even charge. We give ourselves over to our idols and passions and sins for free. We’re just like the Israelites who gladly worshipped Baal. The prophet Hosea preached against Israel like this, “My people inquire of piece of wood, and their walking staff gives them oracles. For a spirit of whoredom has led them astray, and they have left their God to play the whore.” (4:12) If you get upset by that word, be glad you didn’t have Hosea or Ezekiel as your preacher. It was a common word in their sermons because it accurate described the sins of Israel. I wonder if that is why we don’t hear too much from them in our Old Testament readings.
Whenever you sin, you are being unfaithful to the God who created you. You are choosing to give yourself to another god instead of Your faithful and loving God. You are worse than a whore because you’re willing to pay. You’ll sacrifice time and money in pursuit of your passions. You’ll work hard to sin. Most people spend far more on their pleasures than they bring to the God who is their husband. When you gossip you are not trusting the name God has given you – human, created in the image of God, and Christian, redeemed by the blood of Christ. When you are a glutton, you are not satisfied with the Bread of Life. When you are covetous and greedy and grabbing everything you can get your hands on, you have turned your back on the One Who provides all you need, Who would hold you in His hand for all eternity. You are a whore. I am a whore.
What does God do with us harlots? He marries us. Hosea declares this Word of the Lord, “I will betroth you to me forever. I will betroth you to me in righteousness and in justice, in steadfast love and mercy. I will betroth you to me in faithfulness. And you shall know the Lord.”
This is what God reveals to us in Christ Jesus. Our bridegroom came down from heaven. Took hold of us in His human flesh. Carried our tattered and filthy bodies with Himself to the cross. There by the shedding of His blood He scrubbed us clean. Your sins are forgiven. Not a wrinkle or blemish. In baptism you were united to Him and everything that He has became yours. Now you are clothed in His righteousness, more beautiful than your baptismal gown. You are radiant. You are His. You are righteous. And when you appear before the Father, Your heavenly bridegroom will declare, “Isn’t she beautiful? All that I have is hers. And all that was hers I’ve taken away.” And your heavenly Father will smile on you with loving eyes and welcome you home.
Men, we need to pray fervently and work steadfastly to be such husbands. Women and girls, you need to pray fervently and seek diligently for such a man to be your husband. This is what Christ has done for us and in marriage and sexuality we need to act like it.
Brides are an image or picture of the church. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its savior. Everything we have is from Christ. Without Him what do you have? You have your sins, your shame, your death, your tattered rags and filthy souls. With Him what don’t you have? You have forgiveness. You have love and worth. He laid down His life for you. Your body is sanctified. Your conscience is clean. You’re living forever. Your body will be glorious in the resurrection. You are never, ever, ever alone. And every week you have communion – you are united with Christ in His body and blood. With that body and blood He gives you all that He has – forgiveness, life, and salvation.
You have been taken from the trash heap of your own sins and have been loved until you are lovely. You can say, “My beloved is mine and I am His.” (Song 2:16). Christ is the perfect groom, taking all that is wrong with His bride, and giving her all that is right and good and beautiful and holy. He has taken your sins and died with them. He has given you forgiveness and life with Him. That’s the wedding ring He bestows on you when you believe, when you accept His proposal and are wed to Him in baptism, in faith, in confession.
Will you be faithful to Him unto death? You were asked that in your baptism and at your confirmation. Your answer through your sponsors first, and then with your own voice was, “I will, by the grace of God.” That starts with your body, with your being male or female, with your being single or married, because that is how God created you, and that is whom Christ redeemed. Boys are boys. Girls are girls. Sex only in marriage. One man and one woman for one lifetime. If that’s not where you are right now, repent, turn from your sins, and receive the love of Christ, who gave Himself up to the cross for you.
What I have preached to you this morning is a scandal to the world and sadly to most Christians. Our own children might roll their eyes at such foolishness. And it is foolishness. It is the foolishness of God’s love for us. Why would God love me or you? I won’t say that word again, but you know what you were. And now, by God’s grace, you know what you are, the Bride of Christ. And that’s why we act like it. In the name of Jesus. Amen.