It’s Complicated Week 2 – Jon Tyson

Overview:

Paul has written a letter to the early church in Ephesus, which was a godless society. He took their godless vision on marriage and showed them how it is completely changed with Jesus. Women were not respected in the culture of that time. Paul was taking the view of women in society and transforming it. Marriage is a mutual submission between husband and wife. Paul is showing men not how to rule their wives but love them sacrificially as Christ loved the Church. Husbands have to submit themselves to the Holy Spirit and to their wives by sacrificially loving their partner. We have to submit our own needs for personal satisfaction to God. Paul emphasizes that men are not greater than women and women don’t have to submit to all men but only to their own husband. Men need to guard, be gentle, tender, and love like Jesus. Lead and love so well that your wife wants to be under your leadership. You have to have realistic and biblical expectations. Passionate love is a flame that burns out. Companionate love is a vision of two vines that are intertwined over time. Don’t believe what the world tells you is better than God’s standards.

Verses:

Ephesians 5:21-33

Quotes:

“Eve was not taken out of Adam’s head to top him, neither out of his feet to be

trampled on by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be

protected by him, and near his heart to be loved by him.”

– Matthew Henry

“Our marriages should preach the gospel of relational reconciliation to a culture of relational fracture”

– Jon Tyson

“An engagement period that is preparing for a marriage and not planning for an event”

– Jon Tyson

Questions:

1) Culture and experiences can easily become our framework for marriage. What was your parents’ marriage like growing up?

2) Where will you get your vision of marriage from?

3) What are some unbiblical expectations you are placing in finding a future spouse and in marriage?

4) Why do you want to get married?

5) How is your marriage going to reflect the Gospel?

6) How does the world’s idea of submission differ from the Bible’s teaching on submission?