GSCC Small Group 02-06-07

Ephesians 5:21-32

21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

1. What would be the purpose of your marriage?
2. What is the role of a wife in a marriage? (your opinion and from this passage)
3. What is the role of a husband in a marriage? (your opinion and from this passage)
4. How does church submit to Christ, and how does Christ love the church?
5. When you marry, God regard you and your spouse as one. In what ways husbands and wives are one? (unite in Christ, tend each other’s needs, raise same family, work toward same goal, serve together, spiritual partner)
6. How would this passage impact your view of marriage and dating process?

Prayer: Pray for your marriage or future marriage if you are single. Pray for God to use your marriage to honor Him.