Indeed, no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly,For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church;
9 sermons cite this verse
… verse 26 through 28, God's creation of man and woman in his image to Genesis chapter 2, verse 24, God's institution of marriage between a man and a woman for the purpose, Ephesians chapter 5, verses 22 through 33 of displaying the gospel and a husband's selfless sacrificial love for his wife, a wife's submissive respect and love for her husband, which leads to Ephesians chapter 6, verses 1 through 4, and a father and a mother loving their child in a way that reflects the love of God for that child. There's so much we could talk about here, but just to bring the data on to bear on why this is so important, do you know what percentage of women seeking abortions are unmarried in our country. Approximately 86%. So almost nine out of 10 women in our country who seek abortions are unmarried. We in our culture have decoupled sex from marriage and the effects are tragic for children in the womb. the devilish fruit of sexual immorality is the death of millions of boys and girls and do you know who's the most influential person in a woman's decision to have an abortion research shows it's the father of that baby there's not even a close second And most fathers are at best abdicating that decision, if not encouraging it. …
… So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reverence to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife, even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Now backing up to verse 18, just to remind you, those who are Spirit-filled, verse 18, with the Spirit, those who are joyful worshipers, verse 19, those who are constantly thankful, verse 20, and those who are mutually submissive are the ones who are going to enjoy the richness of marriage as the grace of life. …
… He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother, and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and wife must see to it that she respects her husband." Now I understand in the culture in which we live the outright offense of a portion of Scripture like this, and there are many others that I will take you to this morning before we are finished. We are living in a culture that is making a complete effort to destroy men, to destroy women, to destroy children, to destroy families, to destroy marriage. This is an all-out massive assault. …
… body of Christ I'm gonna read it out the version that Tom Rainer has and then I want to read it out of the message bible Ephesians chapter 5 verse 29 and 33 listen to the language of how family shows up in the body of Christ Ephesians 5 verse 29 reads like this for no one ever hates his own flesh but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it just as Christ does for the church verse 30 because we are members of his body for this reason a man will leave his father and his mother and be joined his wife and and the two will become one flesh this is great mystery but I am speaking about Christ and the church each of you however should love his wife as himself and a wife should respect her husband check this language Paul is using all this language that kind of interweaves between Christ loving the church how a husband should love his wife and Christ has given his life to care for the church is as if the the church is the bride of Christ or the wife quote unquote of Christ and be just like a husband takes care of his bride or supposed to and just like a bride is supposed to respect her husband supposed to catch me right there that's the that's the kind of imagery that Christ has with the church it is something you nourish it is something that you spend time with and so because no church is perfect we've got to love this place like Christ …
… hey, I want you to care for your wife like you care for your own body. And he says in verse 29, no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church because we are members of his body. Okay, I'm a member of Christ's body? Like, just like this arm is a part of me. And I'm going to take care of this arm. I'm going to just, you know, if it's in pain, I'm going to fix it. Like, how do you not take care of your arm? You break your arm, just what your whole body is just focused. And God is saying, that's what I think about you. I'm like, are you kidding me, God? So like, I'm your arm? I'm a member of your body? Wait, God. Like, Christ is the head, and I'm like a member of that body. And he's saying, I'm going to care for you like you would care for your own body. …
… He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever hated his own flesh, but he nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause, shall a man leave his father and mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery. That is, it's difficult to understand. But then he says, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. I give you the illustration, he says. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself. and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Gentlemen, let's start with you first. I'll start with me. What am I to do if I would tune up my marriage? Well, I am to be to Joyce what Jesus is to the church. I am to give to Joyce what Jesus gives to the church. Now that means three major things. First of all it means leadership. Look if you will in verse 23, for the husband is the head of the wife. Do you see that lady? Do you see that sir? The husband is the head of the wife. How is he the head of the wife? As Christ is the head of the church. Now how is Christ the head of the church? …
… So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord the church. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband. Harmony in the home. We told you that in order for there to be music, and music that we like to listen to, there must be melody. We sing the same song. There can be harmony. we sing different parts. There ought to be rhythm where we sing it together. So what an illustration of what a marriage ought to be and the music of marriage. Now we were talking this morning about the fact that God made men and women different that He might make us one. And how that we sing the same song but the man sings one part and takes the lead and the woman sings the other part and harmonizes with her husband. But the things that I have given to you about the differences between men and women, I'm just going to take these off just to remind you that God teaches that the man …
… thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of his body. For this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. That all sound familiar, because that's exactly what we read last week in the Genesis 2 passage. This mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respect her husband. You remember we looked at those two purposes last week. That first purpose, that purpose of procreation, which we said was more than just bringing children into the world, but bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. That second purpose was illustration, to paint a picture of the relationship between Christ and his church, which is precisely what we see here in this text. Now, ladies, if you're paying attention, I know you're astute Bible scholars. You know that what she must be, what we're talking about next week, is in the verses that precede these verses. It's before. …
… He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Why? And the two should become one flesh. so reason number one that the husband or the wife does not practice these imperatives is because we are not realizing or appropriating the reality that we are members of one another in marriage but it gets worse go back to chapter four beginning of verse 11 and he christ gave the apostles the prophets the evangelists the pastors and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, so that we may no longer be children tossed to and fro by the ways and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness and deceitful schemes. …