SUNDAY SCHOOL LESSON ~ NOVEMBER 14TH

Being Married

LESSON PASSAGE OUTLINE
1. Wives: Submit as Service (Eph. 5:22-24)
2. Husbands: Love as Christ Does (Eph. 5:25-30)
3. Both: Express a Complete Unity (Eph. 5:31-33)

BIBLICAL TRUTH - Christians are to relate to their spouses on the basis of their own relationship with Jesus Christ.

Bible Commentary - by Kendell Easley, Professor of Christian Studies at the Germantown TN campus of Union University.

It took me a while to become acquainted with members of the large "40-somethings"couples’ Sunday school class I was leading back in the 1990s. Little by little it dawned on me that almost half the participants were in their second marriage after a painful divorce. At first this realization struck me as unusual, because my wife and I grew up in homes with our biological parents and because we have been blessed with a strong marriage. Then as I thought about it, I realized two added truths. First, the statistics of my class members mirrored the marriage-failure rate in the United States. Second, my friends in this class were all committed to their present partners—and determined to make their marriages succeed as a healthy Christian ones.

 How committed are your Christian married friends to the biblical principles of marriage? How likely are the couples in your church to express commitment to the biblical ideals of being married?

We live in a time when (at least in our broader society) competing views about a "good marriage" vie for attention. Some see marriage on the basis of what they can get out of it. They view marriage as a way to meet their needs for love, companionship, and sexual intimacy. Others see marriage mainly in terms of what they can provide for their spouse, such as financial security or a nurturing home for children. In some instances, persons may be so afraid of losing their marriage that they see preserving their marriage as something entirely up to them. From a Christian perspective, the best way to live in a marriage relationship is on the basis of one’s relationship to the Lord Jesus. Then both spouses will have their needs met.

The Life Goal of this lesson is to help adults promote biblical ideals of being married. The focus is on Paul’s instructions to the Christian husbands and wives that were part of the congregation in Ephesus. ....these verses assume the ideal relationship in which both spouses are believers and are committed to biblical teachings.