Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 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. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. 25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 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. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. —Ephesians 5:22–32

The

Reveal Answer

church

is precious to Jesus

Because people are

, we don’t always see the church as precious.

How do we know the church is precious to Jesus?

There are three specific evidences given in the text that prove, without any doubt, that the church is precious to Jesus.

1. Jesus

His church – vs. 23-24

Jesus is the

over all the creation and certainly the

Reveal Answer

church

.

And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. —Colossians 1:18

2. Jesus

His church – vs. 25-30

3. Jesus is

to His Church – vs. 31-32

Human marriage was not created only for relational intimacy, producing children, or for sexual fulfilment. Marriage was created to show the

Reveal Answer

union

of Christ and His church.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. —John 17:20–23

The Church is of infinite worth because it

&

Reveal Answer

displays

our union with Christ!

The church is precious to Jesus; therefore, the church must be precious to

.