JMJ, Come Holy Spirit

Vocations – Marriage reflection on Eph. 5:21-27

Name: _____________________________________________________________

Read Ephesians 5:21-27 – This passage is often seen as controversial, but instead it is
misunderstood.
1. What do you imagine most people think it means that a woman is supposed to be subject
to her husband?
That she is to listen to him and everything he says.

2. Using the metaphor between Christ and the Church, what do you think it means that the
wife is to be “subject” to her husband?

Submit to the leadership of her husband and respect him. When you respect your
husband you reverence him, notice him, regard him, honor him, prefer him, and esteem
him.

3. Husbands are asked to love their wives as Christ loved the Church. What did Christ do
for the Church? (Write down what you’re thinking even if it seems too obvious). What
does this mean that husbands are called to do?

Christ’s love for the church is the model for husbands’ love for their wives. Christ’s love
was expressed most fully when he gave himself up for her.

4. Christ demands equal love and service from both spouses. How do you think this is
shown in this passage? Do you think this passage would look worse without verse 21?

Since God created him man and woman, their mutual love becomes an image of the
absolute and unfailing love with which God loves man. It is good, very good, in the
Creator's eyes.
Please answer these questions as reflection questions. You will be graded based on both
completion and effort. Think about these questions and answer as honestly as you’re able to.

• Christ instructs both husbands and wives to treat each other as Christ treated the Church.
What do you think this might look like in every day life?

Christ instituted the Church in a means to bring his people closer to him and essentially
closer to Heaven. Through the Church, Christians can worship God and become holier
through things like mass and the sacraments, making Heaven more attainable. This is
how husbands and wives are to act together as well. They should both be models of
Christ and help each other grow spiritually with an intention of helping the other reach
salvation in Heaven. In everyday life, this simply means encouraging one another to act
in a Christ-like manner and being companions in prayer and attending mass.

• Knowing this, do you believe that all married couples love one another as Christ loves the
Church?
No, not everyone sees marriage like Christ. Christs love for the church is everlasting and will
never change. Not everyone has a perfect marriage, couples get divorced everyday. Marriage
can be a hard thing to keep for some couples.

• Look back on our old definition of love – how does this relate to what Christ instructs for
the Sacrament of Marriage?

Christ instructs Marriage to be encompassed by love with the intention of reaching

salvation. Love should be the driving force that encourages married couples to
dedicate themselves to one another because they want to see the person they love
reach Heaven and live in eternity with God together.
 • Have you ever seen a couple that you believe would lay down their lives for one another?
How have they displayed this selflessness?

The couple that would sacrifice himself/herself for the other displays selflessness in
word and action. They show this in sacrificing little things that may interfere with their
own life but makes the life of the other better.