That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
Christ gave Himself for the church, dying on the cross and buying it with His blood, to sanctify and cleanse it so nothing opposed to God remains in the heart. That washing is done by the Holy Spirit working through the Word, which cleanses and sanctifies when its truth is received in the heart, believed, obeyed and practiced in the life. The cleansing reaches the whole person, body, soul and spirit, purifying from all moral and spiritual impurity to present to Himself a glorious church, holy and without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. His self-giving, sanctifying love is the pattern husbands are to copy in loving, nourishing and cherishing their wives, for marriage is a symbol of the sacred, enduring union between Christ and His church. This requires thorough daily conversion, overcoming every selfish propensity and unholy word and act, to make a Christlike people ready to go in with the Bridegroom when He comes.
Christ's Purpose and Context
Christ gave Himself for the church in order to sanctify and cleanse it by washing of water through the word, so that He might present it to Himself glorious and holy and without blemish. That self-sacrificing love is the standard and model for a husband's love to his wife, calling him to loving, cherishing care and to nourish her as his own body. Husbands are to remember these words and put them into practice to the letter, for the instruction is of the greatest importance though practiced by few, and obeying it would bring change in families. In particular the husband is not to degrade his wife by making her a servant to uncontrolled passion, nor to endanger or weaken her by selfish sexual conduct or by repeated pregnancies that impair her health and service to God.
That giving of Himself meant loving the church and giving His precious life, giving Himself up to death and dying on the cross to take away sins. He bought the church with His own blood to sanctify and cleanse her, to cleanse believers and keep them from all sin and pollution, so that nothing antagonistic to God remains in the heart. This cleansing is carried on by the influence of the Holy Spirit working through the washing of water by the Word that convinces and convicts of sin and purifies those who obey the truth. He made the church the repository of sacred, holy truth and clothed her with salvation, wanting her to partake of His glory, and He sends His Spirit again and again to put a living, working principle into the church to do this cleansing work. He died because each human soul is of great worth to save every person, and as Bride married to Him the church is to yoke with Him as Leader in saving perishing souls in darkness, clothed in the wedding garment which is the robe of His righteousness and keeping those garments clean and undefiled.
The verse stands within the instruction of Ephesians 5:22-29 on how husband and wife glorify God in their united life, and within Ephesians 5:25-32 which presents marriage as a symbol of the sacred, enduring bond between Christ and His church. Marriage as a union for life is a symbol of the union between Christ and His church, and the unity of Christ and the church is the pattern the husband as house-band is to bind the family together into. That calls husband and wife to be faithful to each other so long as life shall last, revealing the self-sacrifice that leads to truest happiness and highest perfection of character, with the husband as house-band of the family and priest of his home who loves and cherishes his wife, and the wife respecting and loving her husband. Christ and His church are inseparable, and God has placed believers in connection with appointed leaders and helps in His church to be helped, encouraged and strengthened by them rather than neglecting or despising them.
Washing of Water by Word
The washing is accomplished through the influence of the Holy Spirit working by the Word that convinces and convicts of sin, cleansing believers from sin and pollution and keeping them from it. Christ gave Himself up to death on the cross for this cleansing, and husbands in particular are to receive that convicting and purifying Word, live by it, and reflect His self-giving love in the family.
The Word cleanses and sanctifies only when truth is received in the heart, believed, obeyed, and put into practice in the life, not as mere outward show or work. It is Bible sanctification by obedience to the truth in God's word, purifying all who receive and obey it and live by it. When so received and obeyed the Word brings life, regenerates the sinful soul, and cleanses it, and this purification of character is an individual work calling for diligent cooperation with Christ and admitting no delay. This cleansing prepares the church to be holy and without blemish.
The Word of God alone purifies the soul from all moral and spiritual impurity, so the work is to educate souls by it, adapting its teachings to all classes with fewer forms and ceremonies and greater genuine simplicity, true love and sympathy that reaches out for souls, bears others' burdens. The cleansing applies to the whole person — body, soul, and spirit — for those taught the great plan of redemption are to be sanctified and purified and cleansed through the washing of the Word. It accompanies and is effected by faith which works through love and purifies the soul, keeping the believer grounded and settled in the faith and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. God's promises never fail where there is constant watching unto prayer, and this steadfastness is cause for earnest thanksgiving and the privilege of everyone.
The Word is spiritual food that must be lived on in order to have life in Christ, taken and searched as precious truth suited to the taste, believed and loved so that God works in and through the believer in a heavenly atmosphere and valuable spiritual experience. Its power moves the conscience and cleanses the soul-temple, but when misinterpreted it loses its precious meaning and becomes a dead letter made of none effect. The cleansing therefore calls for diligent heed to God's Word rather than neglect of it, and for not receiving the grace of God in vain, with no time to lose because the day of the Lord is right upon us. This same cleansing prepares the church to be presented to Christ as glorious, holy, and without blemish, and receiving that mercy and compassion and love means loving one another as Christ has loved the church.
Glorious Church Without Blemish
The washing cleanses the church in order to prepare it to be presented to Christ Himself as a glorious church, holy and without blemish. That presentation is faultless, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy, clean, and without blemish. This self-giving, sanctifying love that gives itself to cleanse and nourish is the pattern for a husband's cherishing love for his wife, who is to be nourished and cherished and not endangered or weakened by selfish conduct, joined with the wife's submission as the church submits to Christ.
Becoming perfect in this way is made possible by God's gift of Christ, so that by using their abilities for God's glory people can fulfill this purpose. His grace and knowledge of His will enable this as they set aside self, walk humbly, and rely on His guidance. It is the wonderful possibility and fullness that every follower has the privilege of receiving, nothing greater than the character Christ revealed. That character Christ asks the Father to bestow on those who believe in Him, so that cleansed believers receive and reveal the character of God.
Those whom God loves enjoy this favor because they are lovely in character. This cleansing work belongs together with Christ's prayer that all who believe be one as the Father is in Him and He in the Father. Made perfect in one and sharing His glory, they are one so that the world may believe the Father sent Him and may know the Father loves them as He loved Christ.
Christ and Church United
The relation is very close and sacred, with Christ as Bridegroom and the church as bride, He as head and the church as body, and every true believer as a member of His body. He gave Himself to sanctify and cleanse the church and make it holy and without blemish, and its members are to be joined to their Leader and clothed in the robe of His righteousness, keeping their garments undefiled. Connection with Christ therefore involves connection with His church, which is organized for service, so that connection with the church is one of the first steps in a life of service to Christ. Loyalty to Christ demands the faithful performance of church duties, and this faithfulness is an important part of training, leading directly in a church imbued with the Master's life to effort for the world without.
Even while she appears enfeebled and defective, His special love sanctifies and cleanses His church on earth. She is the theater of His grace and His fortress and city of refuge in a revolted world, bought with the precious blood of His only begotten Son, made the repository of sacred, holy truth, clothed with salvation, and still an object of God's supreme regard to be taught. There His representative the Holy Spirit works mercy to transform human hearts so wonderfully that angels look on with astonishment and heaven rejoices, and He sends His Spirit again and again to change the attitude of His people and put a living, working principle into the church to do this cleansing work. That cleansing produces members who have compassion for one another and love one another as He loved them, who labor to separate evil from good and will not knowingly tolerate wrongdoing but expel it from their own hearts and lives. This stands opposite the church of Satan, whose members remain children of disobedience, love and choose sin, labor to make void God's holy, just, good law, and mingle evil with good to confuse good and evil. Because the church was bought with precious blood, any betrayal of her sacred trust is treachery to Him, and judgment of the spiritual work of others must be done with great care lest the manifestation of the Holy Spirit be ascribed to evil agencies. Unconsecrated elements rock the church to sleep in the cradle of carnal security, reject the rich floods of light opened from heaven, and refuse the power of God and rich grace He longs to bestow unless they can mark out the way in which He shall work. The Word by which He cleanses and sanctifies is to be studied and received as spiritual food, and He wants her to partake of His glory.
Believers are in spiritual wedlock with Jesus Christ, married to Him as His bride, to become sharers in His kingdom as joint heirs with Him, with the assurance of being loved by God as God loves His Son. The Word is their assurance in that union, so they are to be strong, talk hope, and press through obstacles, approaching Jesus with full assurance of faith and joining their hands with His. They are to follow God where He leads and do whatsoever He says, and He will teach them as willingly as He teaches another for them. Unfaithfulness by His people is like a wife's unfaithfulness to her husband. Each believer belongs to Him as His bought property by creation and redemption, with Jesus Christ as true husband, and no earthly marriage relation can separate the wife from her husband Jesus Christ or excuse turning away from Him.
Each wife and each husband has individual responsibility to accept the gospel invitation and walk in the light, and if an earthly husband refuses the light and hinders the wife, or the wife refuses, the believing spouse must not yield or neglect the invitation to please husband or relatives. If need be husband or wife must be forsaken to practice religious principles and manifest loyalty to God and Jesus Christ. Christ and His church are inseparable, for He guards His church by sanctifying and cleansing it from corruption, a pattern requiring keeping without taint of corruption and fulfilling the marriage vow by guarding the wife as Christ guards His church. God has ordained appointed leaders to bear responsibilities for the advancement of the truth, and has placed believers in connection with His appointed help in His church that they might be helped, encouraged, and strengthened by them. To neglect or despise those leaders and to insist that light must come through no other channel but direct from God is to reject the means God ordained, placing a person where they are liable to deception and to be overthrown, following the pattern of the fallen angels who were beautiful and glorious but dependent on God for happiness, light, and intelligence, and who wanted independence from God and fell from their high estate through insubordination. Remaining in that connection is especially necessary for one whose judgment, wisdom, and discrimination have been perverted by spiritualism and who cannot always discern spirits of themselves, because Satan is very wily. Mere outward membership in a church does not save, but personal faith in Christ brings the soul into spiritual union with Him within the picture of the church as His body and bride.
Husbands Love Like Christ
Christ gave Himself for the church to sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself glorious and holy and without blemish, without spot or wrinkle, and that self-giving, sanctifying love is the pattern husbands must study in the light of Calvary and copy in loving their wives. The relation Christ sustains to the church is the symbol and pattern for marriage, to be learned in His dying on the cross to cleanse believers from sin and pollution by the Holy Spirit working through the Word that convinces of sin. Husbands are therefore not to dwell one-sidedly on the subjection of the wife, but to learn their own position and office from Christ, with the instruction containing lessons for the guidance of every married man and every married woman. That instruction is of the greatest importance though practiced by few, requiring faithful love and special care for the wife and searching of the heart as with a lighted candle, and carrying it out to the letter would bring change in families. Living out this mutual order of Christlike love and of submission as the church submits to Christ is the only way husband and wife can glorify God in their united life.
The husband is to love his wife as his own body, nourishing and cherishing her even as the Lord the church, with faithful love, special care, attentive honor and care, and a pure, sweet atmosphere in the home. He is to be as a saviour in his family, ever seeking to uplift wife and children, cultivating the love of Jesus as an abiding principle and devoting time to study the Word of God, to receive it and to become a doer of the Lord's command. He is to be the house-band binding the family together into unity, and the priest of his home in religious service, loving and cherishing his wife and remaining faithful to each other so long as life shall last. That self-sacrifice leads to the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, with divine love not destroying human love but including it, refined and purified, elevated and ennobled, united with the divine nature and trained to grow heavenward to bear its precious fruit. By receiving and living by the convicting, purifying Word, and by watching and praying and keeping the soul in communion with God under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, he becomes purified and reflects Christ's self-giving love in the family.
He must not degrade his wife by making her a servant to uncontrolled passions, nor endanger or weaken her through selfish sexual conduct or repeated pregnancies that impair her health and service to God. He must not make his wife an instrument for lust or use her to gratify lust, for such use is not the pure, self-giving, purifying love by which Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church to make her holy and without blemish rather than polluting her. In God's order for marriage the man is given the preference as head and the wife is to obey her husband and to leave father, mother, family and friends to cleave to him, loving him and living with him in harmony and happiness, while the husband is not to be bitter against his wife but to love her as his own body. He is not to speak harsh words or manifest a wrong spirit, for harshness breaks affection and the marriage union itself is sanctified and constantly perfected for heaven only when under the rule of the Prince of Life. When he is harsh and overbearing he fails the office of house-band, breaks every tie of affection, and scatters the members of the family filled with bitterness and hatred toward one another, bringing woe upon the children and making the whole family a blot upon the earth.
He must keep himself without taint of corruption and fulfill his marriage vow by guarding his wife as Christ guards His church by sanctifying and cleansing it from corruption.
Mutual Love in Marriage
The wife is to submit to her husband, respecting, reverencing and loving him, leaving father, mother, family and friends to cleave to him so the two live in harmony and happiness in faithfulness so long as life shall last. God has given the man the preference as head, and the wife is to obey him, loving him better than anyone on earth, making his wishes her wishes, while serving God with the whole heart and with the eye single to His glory draws her closer to him rather than away from him. Divine love does not destroy human love but includes it, refined and purified, elevated and ennobled, united with the divine nature and trained to grow heavenward to bear its precious fruit, sustaining husband and wife before and after children are born.
Husband and wife are to manifest toward each other the spirit Christ manifests toward the church, in mutual self-denial and self-sacrifice, courtesy, gratitude and submission. Neither may plead for rulership nor try to compel the other to do as they wish, for there is to be no masterly dictatorial spirit, no lording over each other, since compulsion destroys love. Both must cherish the precious spirit of kindness and determine never to grieve or injure each other, exercising will power to be a great blessing to each other and not a curse.
The husband must respect the wife's rights and individuality, which is not to be submerged, never domineering nor forcing her by strong will power and advantage of age and wider experience, but being patient, kind and forbearing, remembering and honoring that she has a will of her own. Marriage is a union for life and a sacred union, a symbol of the union between Christ and His church, in which Christian husband and wife have the same hope in Jesus Christ, both amenable to God under one Master, in the highest sense as brother and sister to each other, undivided in spirit. In that union they keep their souls in the love of God through trials, mutually share the responsibility of training their children, and treat each other with all kindness, tenderness and sympathy, with no word of censure or disrespect spoken of the other in the hearing of the children, while the husband as head stands as priest in his household to watch and pray and keep his soul in communion with God under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit.
When husband and wife are under the rule of the Prince of Life the marriage union itself is sanctified and constantly perfected for heaven. The husband answers the purpose of God by being priest in religious service and houseband binding the family relation together, and the wife in deep love leans upon her husband while loving, respecting and counseling with him, standing as queen of the home, not a slave, but part of the hallowed union. Their affections are made pure, clean and holy as a testimony to the world of happy Christian homes. The family relationship is to have a sanctifying influence, with homes established and conducted according to God's plan helping form Christian character as a symbol of the great family above, kept pure and noble only by united loving service to God and by cooperating in the wise, tender, loving education of children.
Heeding this instruction makes home life pure and elevated, guarded by holy love. It reveals self-sacrifice that leads to the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, making happy marriages and happy firesides with true friendship, where the love binding husband and wife is a foretaste of heaven.
Sanctified Character in Life
The verse means the sanctification of the whole man is essential by thorough, daily conversion. The grace of Christ is to be admitted into the heart to purify every thought, regulate every desire, sweeten the disposition, and guard heart, mind and soul by a faithful sentinel. The carnal mind must be overcome, and selfish propensities, wrath, unholy speech, unsanctified actions and every root of bitterness must be overcome, removed and put away. Every discordant element is to be uprooted with every fiber, so that unsubdued self does not spring up again in evil words and actions that mar the character and cause dissension and disunion.
This cleansing means separating sin from the heart and learning the meekness and lowliness of Christ while perfecting His love in the heart. Through His blood there must be earnest seeking for cleansing from sin, from impure thoughts, from natural appetites and all unholy desires, with care even over food that causes worriment and irritation leading to unchristlike dispositions and harsh words. His aim is a holy people, and His grace and strength help every striving soul reach the high standard He has set. His followers must copy His self-denying living sacrifice by spending no more for themselves than is necessary instead of living extravagantly and self-pleasingly. That cleansing produces members who have compassion for one another and love one another as Christ loved them, who labor to separate evil from good and will not knowingly tolerate wrongdoing but expel it from their own hearts and lives. Every church is therefore called to work for perfection by doing nothing that causes disaffection, overcoming the inclination to find fault and condemn, giving no place to accusation, thinking no evil of one another, speaking only good words of comfort and healing, and going directly and kindly to one believed to be wrong to point out the mistake in a compassionate manner.
Ready for His Coming
Christ gave Himself for the church to sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish. Those whom God loves enjoy this favor because they are lovely in character. This cleansing makes a people ready in the closing scenes of perilous times, waiting and watching for His appearing, so that when the Bridegroom comes they will go in with Him to the marriage.
Becoming Christlike in heart and life is essential to being ready for His return. Divine agencies reshape believers according to Christ's perfect pattern, while each person works out what God works in, forming a people who can stand in the day of the Lord. The cleansing word requires diligent heed with no time to lose because the day of the Lord is right upon us, so the word of God must not be neglected and the grace of God must not be received in vain. Receiving that mercy and compassion and love means loving one another as Christ has loved the church.
God's people are the Bride, the Lamb's wife, in close union with Him through His marriage to the church for which He gave Himself. As God's people they are called to be present at the marriage feast, which is the feast of the gospel. Christ died to save every person because each human soul is of great worth, and the church as His bride married to Him must yoke up with Him as Leader in the work of saving perishing souls in darkness through evangelists, missionaries, religious periodicals and the press. Its members are to be joined to their Leader and clothed not in citizen's dress but in the wedding garment which is the robe of His righteousness, keeping those garments clean and undefiled.
Christ gave Himself for the church, dying on the cross and buying it with His blood, to sanctify and cleanse it so nothing opposed to God remains in the heart. That washing is done by the Holy Spirit working through the Word, which cleanses and sanctifies when its truth is received in the heart, believed, obeyed and practiced in the life. The cleansing reaches the whole person, body, soul and spirit, purifying from all moral and spiritual impurity to present to Himself a glorious church, holy and without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. His self-giving, sanctifying love is the pattern husbands are to copy in loving, nourishing and cherishing their wives, for marriage is a symbol of the sacred, enduring union between Christ and His church. This requires thorough daily conversion, overcoming every selfish propensity and unholy word and act, to make a Christlike people ready to go in with the Bridegroom when He comes.
Christ's Purpose and Context
Christ gave Himself for the church in order to sanctify and cleanse it by washing of water through the word, so that He might present it to Himself glorious and holy and without blemish. That self-sacrificing love is the standard and model for a husband's love to his wife, calling him to loving, cherishing care and to nourish her as his own body. Husbands are to remember these words and put them into practice to the letter, for the instruction is of the greatest importance though practiced by few, and obeying it would bring change in families. In particular the husband is not to degrade his wife by making her a servant to uncontrolled passion, nor to endanger or weaken her by selfish sexual conduct or by repeated pregnancies that impair her health and service to God.
That giving of Himself meant loving the church and giving His precious life, giving Himself up to death and dying on the cross to take away sins. He bought the church with His own blood to sanctify and cleanse her, to cleanse believers and keep them from all sin and pollution, so that nothing antagonistic to God remains in the heart. This cleansing is carried on by the influence of the Holy Spirit working through the washing of water by the Word that convinces and convicts of sin and purifies those who obey the truth. He made the church the repository of sacred, holy truth and clothed her with salvation, wanting her to partake of His glory, and He sends His Spirit again and again to put a living, working principle into the church to do this cleansing work. He died because each human soul is of great worth to save every person, and as Bride married to Him the church is to yoke with Him as Leader in saving perishing souls in darkness, clothed in the wedding garment which is the robe of His righteousness and keeping those garments clean and undefiled.
The verse stands within the instruction of Ephesians 5:22-29 on how husband and wife glorify God in their united life, and within Ephesians 5:25-32 which presents marriage as a symbol of the sacred, enduring bond between Christ and His church. Marriage as a union for life is a symbol of the union between Christ and His church, and the unity of Christ and the church is the pattern the husband as house-band is to bind the family together into. That calls husband and wife to be faithful to each other so long as life shall last, revealing the self-sacrifice that leads to truest happiness and highest perfection of character, with the husband as house-band of the family and priest of his home who loves and cherishes his wife, and the wife respecting and loving her husband. Christ and His church are inseparable, and God has placed believers in connection with appointed leaders and helps in His church to be helped, encouraged and strengthened by them rather than neglecting or despising them.
Washing of Water by Word
The washing is accomplished through the influence of the Holy Spirit working by the Word that convinces and convicts of sin, cleansing believers from sin and pollution and keeping them from it. Christ gave Himself up to death on the cross for this cleansing, and husbands in particular are to receive that convicting and purifying Word, live by it, and reflect His self-giving love in the family.
The Word cleanses and sanctifies only when truth is received in the heart, believed, obeyed, and put into practice in the life, not as mere outward show or work. It is Bible sanctification by obedience to the truth in God's word, purifying all who receive and obey it and live by it. When so received and obeyed the Word brings life, regenerates the sinful soul, and cleanses it, and this purification of character is an individual work calling for diligent cooperation with Christ and admitting no delay. This cleansing prepares the church to be holy and without blemish.
The Word of God alone purifies the soul from all moral and spiritual impurity, so the work is to educate souls by it, adapting its teachings to all classes with fewer forms and ceremonies and greater genuine simplicity, true love and sympathy that reaches out for souls, bears others' burdens. The cleansing applies to the whole person — body, soul, and spirit — for those taught the great plan of redemption are to be sanctified and purified and cleansed through the washing of the Word. It accompanies and is effected by faith which works through love and purifies the soul, keeping the believer grounded and settled in the faith and not moved away from the hope of the gospel. God's promises never fail where there is constant watching unto prayer, and this steadfastness is cause for earnest thanksgiving and the privilege of everyone.
The Word is spiritual food that must be lived on in order to have life in Christ, taken and searched as precious truth suited to the taste, believed and loved so that God works in and through the believer in a heavenly atmosphere and valuable spiritual experience. Its power moves the conscience and cleanses the soul-temple, but when misinterpreted it loses its precious meaning and becomes a dead letter made of none effect. The cleansing therefore calls for diligent heed to God's Word rather than neglect of it, and for not receiving the grace of God in vain, with no time to lose because the day of the Lord is right upon us. This same cleansing prepares the church to be presented to Christ as glorious, holy, and without blemish, and receiving that mercy and compassion and love means loving one another as Christ has loved the church.
Glorious Church Without Blemish
The washing cleanses the church in order to prepare it to be presented to Christ Himself as a glorious church, holy and without blemish. That presentation is faultless, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy, clean, and without blemish. This self-giving, sanctifying love that gives itself to cleanse and nourish is the pattern for a husband's cherishing love for his wife, who is to be nourished and cherished and not endangered or weakened by selfish conduct, joined with the wife's submission as the church submits to Christ.
Becoming perfect in this way is made possible by God's gift of Christ, so that by using their abilities for God's glory people can fulfill this purpose. His grace and knowledge of His will enable this as they set aside self, walk humbly, and rely on His guidance. It is the wonderful possibility and fullness that every follower has the privilege of receiving, nothing greater than the character Christ revealed. That character Christ asks the Father to bestow on those who believe in Him, so that cleansed believers receive and reveal the character of God.
Those whom God loves enjoy this favor because they are lovely in character. This cleansing work belongs together with Christ's prayer that all who believe be one as the Father is in Him and He in the Father. Made perfect in one and sharing His glory, they are one so that the world may believe the Father sent Him and may know the Father loves them as He loved Christ.
Christ and Church United
The relation is very close and sacred, with Christ as Bridegroom and the church as bride, He as head and the church as body, and every true believer as a member of His body. He gave Himself to sanctify and cleanse the church and make it holy and without blemish, and its members are to be joined to their Leader and clothed in the robe of His righteousness, keeping their garments undefiled. Connection with Christ therefore involves connection with His church, which is organized for service, so that connection with the church is one of the first steps in a life of service to Christ. Loyalty to Christ demands the faithful performance of church duties, and this faithfulness is an important part of training, leading directly in a church imbued with the Master's life to effort for the world without.
Even while she appears enfeebled and defective, His special love sanctifies and cleanses His church on earth. She is the theater of His grace and His fortress and city of refuge in a revolted world, bought with the precious blood of His only begotten Son, made the repository of sacred, holy truth, clothed with salvation, and still an object of God's supreme regard to be taught. There His representative the Holy Spirit works mercy to transform human hearts so wonderfully that angels look on with astonishment and heaven rejoices, and He sends His Spirit again and again to change the attitude of His people and put a living, working principle into the church to do this cleansing work. That cleansing produces members who have compassion for one another and love one another as He loved them, who labor to separate evil from good and will not knowingly tolerate wrongdoing but expel it from their own hearts and lives. This stands opposite the church of Satan, whose members remain children of disobedience, love and choose sin, labor to make void God's holy, just, good law, and mingle evil with good to confuse good and evil. Because the church was bought with precious blood, any betrayal of her sacred trust is treachery to Him, and judgment of the spiritual work of others must be done with great care lest the manifestation of the Holy Spirit be ascribed to evil agencies. Unconsecrated elements rock the church to sleep in the cradle of carnal security, reject the rich floods of light opened from heaven, and refuse the power of God and rich grace He longs to bestow unless they can mark out the way in which He shall work. The Word by which He cleanses and sanctifies is to be studied and received as spiritual food, and He wants her to partake of His glory.
Believers are in spiritual wedlock with Jesus Christ, married to Him as His bride, to become sharers in His kingdom as joint heirs with Him, with the assurance of being loved by God as God loves His Son. The Word is their assurance in that union, so they are to be strong, talk hope, and press through obstacles, approaching Jesus with full assurance of faith and joining their hands with His. They are to follow God where He leads and do whatsoever He says, and He will teach them as willingly as He teaches another for them. Unfaithfulness by His people is like a wife's unfaithfulness to her husband. Each believer belongs to Him as His bought property by creation and redemption, with Jesus Christ as true husband, and no earthly marriage relation can separate the wife from her husband Jesus Christ or excuse turning away from Him.
Each wife and each husband has individual responsibility to accept the gospel invitation and walk in the light, and if an earthly husband refuses the light and hinders the wife, or the wife refuses, the believing spouse must not yield or neglect the invitation to please husband or relatives. If need be husband or wife must be forsaken to practice religious principles and manifest loyalty to God and Jesus Christ. Christ and His church are inseparable, for He guards His church by sanctifying and cleansing it from corruption, a pattern requiring keeping without taint of corruption and fulfilling the marriage vow by guarding the wife as Christ guards His church. God has ordained appointed leaders to bear responsibilities for the advancement of the truth, and has placed believers in connection with His appointed help in His church that they might be helped, encouraged, and strengthened by them. To neglect or despise those leaders and to insist that light must come through no other channel but direct from God is to reject the means God ordained, placing a person where they are liable to deception and to be overthrown, following the pattern of the fallen angels who were beautiful and glorious but dependent on God for happiness, light, and intelligence, and who wanted independence from God and fell from their high estate through insubordination. Remaining in that connection is especially necessary for one whose judgment, wisdom, and discrimination have been perverted by spiritualism and who cannot always discern spirits of themselves, because Satan is very wily. Mere outward membership in a church does not save, but personal faith in Christ brings the soul into spiritual union with Him within the picture of the church as His body and bride.
Husbands Love Like Christ
Christ gave Himself for the church to sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself glorious and holy and without blemish, without spot or wrinkle, and that self-giving, sanctifying love is the pattern husbands must study in the light of Calvary and copy in loving their wives. The relation Christ sustains to the church is the symbol and pattern for marriage, to be learned in His dying on the cross to cleanse believers from sin and pollution by the Holy Spirit working through the Word that convinces of sin. Husbands are therefore not to dwell one-sidedly on the subjection of the wife, but to learn their own position and office from Christ, with the instruction containing lessons for the guidance of every married man and every married woman. That instruction is of the greatest importance though practiced by few, requiring faithful love and special care for the wife and searching of the heart as with a lighted candle, and carrying it out to the letter would bring change in families. Living out this mutual order of Christlike love and of submission as the church submits to Christ is the only way husband and wife can glorify God in their united life.
The husband is to love his wife as his own body, nourishing and cherishing her even as the Lord the church, with faithful love, special care, attentive honor and care, and a pure, sweet atmosphere in the home. He is to be as a saviour in his family, ever seeking to uplift wife and children, cultivating the love of Jesus as an abiding principle and devoting time to study the Word of God, to receive it and to become a doer of the Lord's command. He is to be the house-band binding the family together into unity, and the priest of his home in religious service, loving and cherishing his wife and remaining faithful to each other so long as life shall last. That self-sacrifice leads to the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, with divine love not destroying human love but including it, refined and purified, elevated and ennobled, united with the divine nature and trained to grow heavenward to bear its precious fruit. By receiving and living by the convicting, purifying Word, and by watching and praying and keeping the soul in communion with God under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit, he becomes purified and reflects Christ's self-giving love in the family.
He must not degrade his wife by making her a servant to uncontrolled passions, nor endanger or weaken her through selfish sexual conduct or repeated pregnancies that impair her health and service to God. He must not make his wife an instrument for lust or use her to gratify lust, for such use is not the pure, self-giving, purifying love by which Christ sanctifies and cleanses the church to make her holy and without blemish rather than polluting her. In God's order for marriage the man is given the preference as head and the wife is to obey her husband and to leave father, mother, family and friends to cleave to him, loving him and living with him in harmony and happiness, while the husband is not to be bitter against his wife but to love her as his own body. He is not to speak harsh words or manifest a wrong spirit, for harshness breaks affection and the marriage union itself is sanctified and constantly perfected for heaven only when under the rule of the Prince of Life. When he is harsh and overbearing he fails the office of house-band, breaks every tie of affection, and scatters the members of the family filled with bitterness and hatred toward one another, bringing woe upon the children and making the whole family a blot upon the earth.
He must keep himself without taint of corruption and fulfill his marriage vow by guarding his wife as Christ guards His church by sanctifying and cleansing it from corruption.
Mutual Love in Marriage
The wife is to submit to her husband, respecting, reverencing and loving him, leaving father, mother, family and friends to cleave to him so the two live in harmony and happiness in faithfulness so long as life shall last. God has given the man the preference as head, and the wife is to obey him, loving him better than anyone on earth, making his wishes her wishes, while serving God with the whole heart and with the eye single to His glory draws her closer to him rather than away from him. Divine love does not destroy human love but includes it, refined and purified, elevated and ennobled, united with the divine nature and trained to grow heavenward to bear its precious fruit, sustaining husband and wife before and after children are born.
Husband and wife are to manifest toward each other the spirit Christ manifests toward the church, in mutual self-denial and self-sacrifice, courtesy, gratitude and submission. Neither may plead for rulership nor try to compel the other to do as they wish, for there is to be no masterly dictatorial spirit, no lording over each other, since compulsion destroys love. Both must cherish the precious spirit of kindness and determine never to grieve or injure each other, exercising will power to be a great blessing to each other and not a curse.
The husband must respect the wife's rights and individuality, which is not to be submerged, never domineering nor forcing her by strong will power and advantage of age and wider experience, but being patient, kind and forbearing, remembering and honoring that she has a will of her own. Marriage is a union for life and a sacred union, a symbol of the union between Christ and His church, in which Christian husband and wife have the same hope in Jesus Christ, both amenable to God under one Master, in the highest sense as brother and sister to each other, undivided in spirit. In that union they keep their souls in the love of God through trials, mutually share the responsibility of training their children, and treat each other with all kindness, tenderness and sympathy, with no word of censure or disrespect spoken of the other in the hearing of the children, while the husband as head stands as priest in his household to watch and pray and keep his soul in communion with God under the molding influence of the Holy Spirit.
When husband and wife are under the rule of the Prince of Life the marriage union itself is sanctified and constantly perfected for heaven. The husband answers the purpose of God by being priest in religious service and houseband binding the family relation together, and the wife in deep love leans upon her husband while loving, respecting and counseling with him, standing as queen of the home, not a slave, but part of the hallowed union. Their affections are made pure, clean and holy as a testimony to the world of happy Christian homes. The family relationship is to have a sanctifying influence, with homes established and conducted according to God's plan helping form Christian character as a symbol of the great family above, kept pure and noble only by united loving service to God and by cooperating in the wise, tender, loving education of children.
Heeding this instruction makes home life pure and elevated, guarded by holy love. It reveals self-sacrifice that leads to the truest happiness and the highest perfection of character, making happy marriages and happy firesides with true friendship, where the love binding husband and wife is a foretaste of heaven.
Sanctified Character in Life
The verse means the sanctification of the whole man is essential by thorough, daily conversion. The grace of Christ is to be admitted into the heart to purify every thought, regulate every desire, sweeten the disposition, and guard heart, mind and soul by a faithful sentinel. The carnal mind must be overcome, and selfish propensities, wrath, unholy speech, unsanctified actions and every root of bitterness must be overcome, removed and put away. Every discordant element is to be uprooted with every fiber, so that unsubdued self does not spring up again in evil words and actions that mar the character and cause dissension and disunion.
This cleansing means separating sin from the heart and learning the meekness and lowliness of Christ while perfecting His love in the heart. Through His blood there must be earnest seeking for cleansing from sin, from impure thoughts, from natural appetites and all unholy desires, with care even over food that causes worriment and irritation leading to unchristlike dispositions and harsh words. His aim is a holy people, and His grace and strength help every striving soul reach the high standard He has set. His followers must copy His self-denying living sacrifice by spending no more for themselves than is necessary instead of living extravagantly and self-pleasingly. That cleansing produces members who have compassion for one another and love one another as Christ loved them, who labor to separate evil from good and will not knowingly tolerate wrongdoing but expel it from their own hearts and lives. Every church is therefore called to work for perfection by doing nothing that causes disaffection, overcoming the inclination to find fault and condemn, giving no place to accusation, thinking no evil of one another, speaking only good words of comfort and healing, and going directly and kindly to one believed to be wrong to point out the mistake in a compassionate manner.
Ready for His Coming
Christ gave Himself for the church to sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but holy and without blemish. Those whom God loves enjoy this favor because they are lovely in character. This cleansing makes a people ready in the closing scenes of perilous times, waiting and watching for His appearing, so that when the Bridegroom comes they will go in with Him to the marriage.
Becoming Christlike in heart and life is essential to being ready for His return. Divine agencies reshape believers according to Christ's perfect pattern, while each person works out what God works in, forming a people who can stand in the day of the Lord. The cleansing word requires diligent heed with no time to lose because the day of the Lord is right upon us, so the word of God must not be neglected and the grace of God must not be received in vain. Receiving that mercy and compassion and love means loving one another as Christ has loved the church.
God's people are the Bride, the Lamb's wife, in close union with Him through His marriage to the church for which He gave Himself. As God's people they are called to be present at the marriage feast, which is the feast of the gospel. Christ died to save every person because each human soul is of great worth, and the church as His bride married to Him must yoke up with Him as Leader in the work of saving perishing souls in darkness through evangelists, missionaries, religious periodicals and the press. Its members are to be joined to their Leader and clothed not in citizen's dress but in the wedding garment which is the robe of His righteousness, keeping those garments clean and undefiled.