Through The Bible in a Year - October 6, 2026

“...that Christ's body, the church, would be so powerful that the gates of hell would not prevail against it... we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities and spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:1-4

Before Paul writes even one word about parenting, he spends most of his letter describing the church — the body of Christ, made up of different people, gifts, and backgrounds, united in God's mission. That is not incidental to the passage on parenting; life in the church is the context for life as a family. God’s ordinary plan for the spiritual nurture of children is not for families to raise children alone.

When our church baptizes a child, it is not only the parents who make vows to raise that child “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord” — the whole congregation vows to provide prayer and a Christian example for the child. That vow is not mere sentimentality. It is a defense. Children who grow up surrounded by adults who know and love the Lord are being provided a spiritual fortress against spiritual enemies that constantly arise from the world’s circumstances and priorities.

The church’s spiritual protections are also a gift for parents, not just children. In seasons of stress — that can be intensified by feelings of isolation and uncertainty — parents need other believing parents to support them, to debrief with, to be corrected by, or to laugh and cry with as we face the hard and silly moments of raising kids. Of course, we are called raise our own children in Christ’s love, but, in the life of a real church family, we also support one another and, in doing so, help raise each others’ children.

RESPOND: Who are the other believing adults currently speaking into your children's lives — or, if there now seem to be none, who could you invite in? Over the course of a child’s maturing, there will be times that parents seem to have less credibility (especially in teen years). So, are there other mature believers, that your children will love and respect, to give guidance and care at those times?

By God’s grace, your family's involvement in the church can be so much more than a habit to maintain appearances or socialize your children. A genuine relationship with the body of Christ can be one of the greatest provisions God gives for the spiritual nurture and eternal security of your child.

Consider how God has designed the mutual support we find in the church to help us “raise each other's kids.” Then, consider how a conversation, a prayer, a lunch with a friend, can be an honest check-in for mutual support that we and our children need.

PRAYER: Lord, thank You that You never meant for us to parent alone. Thank You for providing the church as a fortress of prayer and example around our children. Give me the humility to lean on other believers, and the faithfulness to be that kind of presence for someone else's family. In Jesus' name, amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - October 5, 2026

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” Ephesians 6:4

One sermon illustration told of a mother who followed every parenting book faithfully, expecting a calm, easy infant in return — and instead found herself furious in the middle of the night when her son would not cooperate. Her anger was not really at her child. It was grief that her idols of control and success had failed her. Every parent knows some version of that fury.

Fathers and mothers often discipline out of two very different postures. Due to unacknowledged or unrecognized insecurities, a man may over-discipline, feeling his reputation or control is threatened. By contrast, a woman fearing the rejection or disappointment of an unruly child may under-discipline to maintain a child’s approval or affection. Neither of these approaches comes from a heart made secure in God’s love by Christ’s grace. Hearts made secure by the provisions of grace correct our children with the certainty that we can express whatever sternness or tenderness our children need without risking the love of the Savior who will never leave or forsake us. Such spiritual security frees us to love a child’s spiritual good more than we love that child's good mood.

This is real talk for the hard seasons that parents may face — seasons of relational tension, employment anxiety, or personal exhaustion. Insecurities, fears, and pride may cause parents to react to these seasons by putting greater pressures on children – pressures designed to keep children under control more than understanding the gospel. Of course it’s not good for our children to be out of control, but we may recognize our insecurities are out of control if our corrections are only some version of “remember to obey” rather than “remember whose you are.” A parent secure in God's fatherhood disciplines to build up the spiritual security of a child, not simply to vent or prevent upset.

RESPOND: Ask honestly: when you correct your children (or those under your care), is it more often coming from security in God or from your own insecurity or embarrassment?

Though it may be painful, recall a recent moment of parental anger. What idol — control, reputation, fear of disapproval — might have been underneath it?

Now take just a moment to consider how you might have expressed that anger (which may have been totally justified) “in the discipline and instruction of the Lord” rather than in frustration — explaining the why, not just enforcing the what.

PRAYER: Father, You have never once disciplined me out of insecurity or embarrassment. Forgive me for the times I have provoked those I love to anger because I needed to feel in control or respected by others. Make me secure enough in Your love that I can discipline with the sternness or tenderness that is needed for my child’s spiritual good rather than my personal needs. Let the gospel assurances provide for my spiritual security rather than my child’s behavior. In Jesus' name, amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - October 2, 2026

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. ‘Honor your father and mother’ (this is the first commandment with a promise), ‘that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.’” Ephesians 6:1–3

Paul roots this instruction to children in the same soil as everything else in Ephesians: what it means to be united to the Lord. Children are not told simply to obey their parents, but to obey them “in the Lord.” Honor of parents is not a bare social nicety, nor a rule for keeping the peace or getting rewards — such honor is one of the earliest ways a child can express trust in and honor for God Himself.

Paul calls this parental honor “the first commandment with a promise.” That promise — that it may go well, that life may be long — is not a magic formula guaranteeing a problem-free life. It is a picture of the ordinary blessing that comes when families are oriented toward the Lord rather than toward selfish satisfaction or self-absorbed interests. Such families experience the stability, trust, and mutual support that God designed to help us weather the hard seasons of life together. Godly parenting is not a guarantee of old age for our children, but a path to the relational and spiritual strength that lasts through all the life that God grants.

For parents, this verse is a reminder that what we are cultivating in a child's obedience is not our own comfort but our children’s understanding of how honoring God is life’s greatest preparation for life’s greatest challenges. For children old enough to hear it, and for the adult children we all remain, honor of spiritual authority is never outgrown — it simply matures to the degree of devotion needed for the trials and triumphs of each stage of life.

RESPOND

How is honor being taught in your home right now — as compliance to keep peace, or as a practice that points each heart toward God?

If you are a parent, consider specific ways you can explain to your children why obedience matters, not just that it matters. How does honoring a parent’s authority help a child to understand, be protected, and be blessed by God’s authority.

If your own parents are living, is there a step of honor — a call, a visit, a kind word — that this passage also prompts you to take for your parent’s sake or for God’s honor?

PRAYER: Lord, thank You for ordering our families with gospel priorities, not just behavioral demands. Teach the children in my life — and teach me — what it means to honor those You have placed in spiritual authority over us. Help us to understand how that honor is rooted in honoring You more than in the perfections of any parent. May the gospel guide us all in honoring those You put in spiritual authority in our lives, not because of their deserving but because of the grace you are maturing in us.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - October 1, 2026

“Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right... Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.” - Ephesians 6:1, 4

It is tempting to want the Bible to be a parenting manual — a checklist we can tape to the refrigerator and mark off day by day. If we just do A and B, we assume, we will get C: a cooperative, godly, well-adjusted child. But Ephesians gives us only four verses on parenting, tucked at the end of a letter that has spent chapter after chapter seems to describe something else entirely: the love of God the Father for the children of God.

That proportion is instructive. Before Paul ever tells us how to raise a child, he spends the bulk of his letter grounding us in gospel-grounded relationships — first with the Lord, then with those in the church, then within marriage. Only after that foundation is laid does he turn, briefly, to parents and children. The pattern is first a healthy relationship with the Lord, then responsibilities with others reflecting that relationship, then instructions for family care. Instructions are not a checklist in a manual but a responsive reflection of our relationship with our Savior.

When our children inevitably act like sinners — because they are — our responses inevitably expose our own spiritual understanding and health. Our responses may not simply reflect concern for our children but anger generated by our own idols: control, reputation, the sense that we deserve a child who reflects well on us because we followed the rules. Scripture will not let us build a family on that foundation. It insists we build on something that is at the same moment sturdier and more sensitive – concern for the realities of the gospel to be grasped by the children gifted to us for spiritual care.

RESPOND: Where have you been looking for a checklist instead of cultivating a relationship — with God, your spouse, or with your child?

Name one "idol" (control, reputation, a certain outcome) that tends to surface when your child disappoints or disobeys you.

Now, not only ask, "What should I do differently?" ask "How is my relationship with the Lord serving as foundation affecting the actions and reactions of my parenting?"

PRAYER: Father, I confess how often I have wanted a formula for parenting instead of focusing on reflecting the heart you have expressed for me. Forgive me for the times I have measured my worth — or my child's — by performance instead of resting on or reflecting Your unconditional love. Please help me build the foundation of my family on relationships that reflect Christ’s care more than reacting to my concerns for my reputation, expectations, or pride. Help me to love as Jesus has loved me. In Jesus' name, amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 30, 2026

“This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.” - Ephesians 5:32-33

Paul calls marriage a profound mystery because the marriage of a husband and wife is pointing to something beyond itself. Marriage is a living picture of Christ and the church. The self-giving of a husband for his wife, as she arranges her gifts under the purposes of his support, is a daily enactment of the gospel—the voluntary sacrifice of one with authority for the flourishing of the one entrusted to his care for his care.

That is why Paul’s final word to husbands is not a strategy or a technique. It is a person: Christ. And a path: the cross.

The path of the gospel husband is the path of the cross. Not simply in occasional dramatic gestures, but in daily, responsible care. In small deaths to self. In choosing to listen when you’d rather be right. In serving when you’d rather be served. In building up when competition or comparison tempts you to diminish. In staying when leaving would be easier. In washing feet and willing sacrifice because that is what love looks like when it is long and costly and real according to Christ’s example.

Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, later struggling with cancer himself, asked his oncologist why his decision to resign his school’s presidency for his wife’s care made such a profound impact on people. Said the doctor, “It’s not unusual for a woman to stand by her husband in serious health crisis. It can be quite unusual for a man to give of himself for the sake of his wife.”

That is the mystery of the gospel Paul is pointing to. When a husband gives himself up for his wife—not because she has earned it, not because conditions are ideal, not because it is convenient, then the world sees something it cannot explain. It sees Christ. It sees the cross. It sees what love actually looks like when it reflects God’s heart.

Respond: What would it mean this week for you to walk the path of the cross in your marriage? Not through a grand gesture, but with daily small deaths to self? What care might you be withholding because your spouse hasn’t earned it? What forgiveness might you have been delaying because the debt hasn’t been paid is sufficiently? What listening might you have been avoiding because it requires more of you than you want to give?

The path to Biblical marriage and to Biblical headship is not unclear. It is the path Christ walked. And we are called to walk it too—for the sake of our spouse, our family, our witness, and the flourishing of our own soul.

Prayer: Father, you intended for marriage to unlock the mysteries of the gospel for me and for my spouse. Forgive me for thinking of marriage only in terms of what blesses me. Help me to nourish and cherish my spouse as my own body, knowing that such care not only blesses another, it makes the gospel more real and present to my heart. The gospel of Jesus that I mirror for my spouse’s wellbeing reflects the nature of your grace into my own soul. Help me to reflect the heart of Jesus daily so that I know more of the mystery and am more awed by the wonder of it each day. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 29, 2026

“In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church… ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’” - Ephesians 5:28-31

Paul makes an argument that surprises us: when a husband loves his wife well, he is actually loving himself. Not in a selfish sense, but in a profound theological one. The two have become one. What is done to one affects both.

When a husband diminishes his wife—through criticism, passivity, domination, or neglect—he cannot escape the consequences. He is doing damage to himself. He is deflating one side of the united whole God intended a husband and wife to be.

Once, Kathy and I were playing a board game with another couple. When the wife came close to winning and was required by the rules to give us a warning to keep the game going, she would not speak. Why? The husband told us. He had decided that his wife would not speak in public without his permission.

We discovered that he was intent on monitoring her every word to keep him from embarrassment and to protect his dignity. It should not surprise us, that over time this husband ended up becoming more selfish, more domineering, and more depressed. By extinguishing her voice, he lost her support and became more and more his own worst self. By silencing her, he had silenced something essential that God intended for his own development and spiritual maturity.

You cannot take the air out of one side of a basketball and expect it to perform as intended. The two sides are needed in their fullness for the ball’s purposes. In a similar way, what diminishes a wife diminishes a husband. And, by God’s design, what causes her to flourish causes him to flourish.

As I look back over five decades of marriage, I realize that had Kathy not been the wife she is—helping me understand what it means to love, to show affection, to be emotionally present—I could not have been the father or husband God called me to be. I would not have known how to express the care of a pastor. Due to issues in my own family of origin, my early marriage and ministry were conducted with my heart “on numb”— kept emotionally guarded from childhood wounds. Yet, by Kathy’s patience, love, and tenderness, her gracious care thawed what had been frozen in me.

I praise God for my wife and know that God put her in my life so that, by watering the gifts of grace in her, I would grow in experiencing more of that same grace.”

The intimate is often the path to the transcendent. The way we care for one another in marriage teaches us of Christ’s own care. A husband who loves his wife tenderly and well is learning something about the love of Christ that cannot be learned any other way.

Respond: Where has your spouse’s influence, presence, and love been shaping you into a better person? Where have you been withholding something from your spouse or diminishing something in your spouse—emotionally, practically, or spiritually—that has been impoverishing both of you?

Consider one way the presence of your spouse in your life has made you better. You might even ask God to show you where your emotional absence or critical spirit has been diminishing not just your spouse but you.

Prayer: Father, you intended for two to become one. What I do to my spouse, I ultimately do to myself. Forgive me for thinking that diminishing another somehow protects or privileges me. It doesn’t—it impoverishes us both. Help me to nourish and cherish my spouse as my own body, knowing that the flourishing of one to whom I am united is essential for my own flourishing. My spouse’s wellbeing is bound up with mine. We are one. Help me live like I believe that. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 28, 2026

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church… that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies.” - Ephesians 5:26-28

What is the goal of Christ’s headship over the church? To make her radiant. To present her to Himself in splendor—without spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish.

He is not exploiting the church. He is not simply dominating her. He is working, actively, to bring out her full glory—to cleanse, to sanctify, to make beautiful everything that sin and brokenness have obscured.

The Apostle Paul takes this example of Christ’s blessing and says: husbands, do the same for your wives. Your goal as the head of your home is not to be served. It is to make your spouse radiant. To fill her heart with such a sense of the grace of God—through the way you treat her—that she knows her own splendor before God.

When she looks in the mirror of your love, does she see herself as God sees her: precious, treasured, without blemish? Or does she see some diminished version of herself that comparison and criticism have created?

A missionary wife wrote these devastating words about her husband after years of his domineering behavior that he had justified as Biblical headship: “I hate him for the way he made me feel about myself, a non-person, a slave, I could never do enough to please him.” The husband, of course, believed that the Bible had given him the right to act as he did by granting him the position of “head” of the home. He had the title. He had the authority. But he used it to strip away his wife’s radiance rather than to help it shine more brightly.

My story of causing my wife to feel incapable of calling a repairman after only one year of marriage—despite being an outstanding musician, scholar, and leader—shows how quickly and subtly a husband can obscure his wife’s radiance if her blessing is not his goal.

The conclusion of that story is that Kathy later taught herself to order parts and to fix the washing machine herself. After I repented and corrected my behaviors, she regained confidence in the brilliant mind and exceptional competence God had instilled in her. I am constantly challenged to remember the moral of that experience: when a husband creates the conditions for his wife’s gifts to flourish both are blessed.

Respond: Husbands: when your wife looks in the mirror of your love, what does she see? Does she see herself as more capable, more treasured, more expressive of God’s gifts than when you married her? Or less?

This week, let’s all find one specific way to affirm our spouse’s competence, significance, or giftedness. Name something that you may have taken for granted and, instead, offer praise for that feature or talent or gift of care that will cause it to flourish even more.

Prayer: Father, Your goal for Christ’s bride is that she would be radiant—without spot or wrinkle, presented to You in splendor. You sent Jesus to bring out that radiance in me. Give me that same goal for my wife. Help me to create the conditions in which she flourishes, where her gifts are celebrated, where her confidence grows, where she knows she is treasured by You because of the way she is treasured by me. Make her radiant through the way I love her. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 25, 2026

“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… Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” - Ephesians 5:23, 25

When Paul says the husband is the head of the wife, he is writing into a Roman culture where a husband’s authority was absolute and frequently abusive. A Roman husband could do as he pleased—take advantage any way he wanted, demand whatever he wished, use his wife and children as instruments of his own satisfaction.

Yet, Paul does not deny a husband’s authority in the home. Instead, he radically redefines it.

The example Paul gives for husbands to follow is not Caesar. It is Christ. Paul reminds us what Christ does with His authority? He empties Himself of privilege. He takes the form of a servant. He gives Himself up in sacrificial care. He uses His authority for the benefit and blessing of others, not for His own advantage.

That Christlikeness is what Paul is calling husbands to express in their role as the head of a family. Such headship is not the absence of leadership, but leadership exercised for the wellbeing of another. Headship is not a couch-potato pass—“I’m head, so I don’t have to do anything.” It’s not a crown—“I’m king, so everyone serves me.” Biblical headship is the specific, costly, Christ-shaped use of whatever authority and influence a husband has for the flourishing of his wife and family.

Reflect: Philippians 2:6-8 describes what such headship looks like in the example of Christ: “Though he was in the form of God, he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant… he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Equality with God—the ultimate privilege—was not grasped. Instead: Jesus emptied himself of personal privilege. He became a servant. He humbled himself for the sake of others, becoming obedient to that calling unto death.

Through Jesus, we understand the radical nature of Biblical headship, not the absence of authority but the complete reorientation of it—away from self, toward another.

Dr. J. Robertson McQuilkin was president of a prestigious seminary when his wife Muriel began to show signs of Alzheimer’s. She would walk the half-mile to his office ten times a day just to be near him. One evening he removed her shoes and found her feet bleeding. As he washed her feet, he realized a similar Christlike duty to which he was being called. He resigned his presidency to care for his wife. People were astounded. He was confused by their amazement. He said, “It is what Christ did, and called me to do as I follow him.”

Respond: Where is God calling you to relinquish something—a preference, a comfort, a convenience, a privilege—for the flourishing of your wife or family?

This week, consider identifying one specific way your leadership at home can be more about furthering your spouse’s wellbeing.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You had all authority and You used it entirely for others. Forgive me for treating my headship as a privilege to be enjoyed rather than a calling to be fulfilled through service to the wellbeing of another. Help me lead the way You led—not by asserting my privileges but by relinquishing them for the sake of my wife and family. In Your name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 24, 2026

“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” - Ephesians 5:25

The word “gospel” simply means good news. So, when Paul calls husbands to reflect Christ’s love by loving their wives as Christ loved the church, he is calling them to be—in the most practical sense gospel-reflecting husbands—good news husbands. When they come through the door, that arrival should feel like good news to everyone in the home.

But Paul doesn’t leave that as a vague aspiration. He gives it a specific definition. Husbands are to love “as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.” The measure of a gospel husband is not the amount of control he exerts over another by his authority or his title. It’s his self-giving influence upon another. This is not expressed by the absence of authority but by the caring use of it.

Christ loved the church not by exploiting his divine privileges, but by relinquishing them. He emptied Himself of heaven’s glory and power. He took the form of a servant. He gave Himself up by modeling godliness in an evil world and by suffering for others upon the cross.

The model Scripture gives husbands to emulate is not that of a king demanding personal service, nor is it a passive bystander excusing himself from responsibility. A servant-leader is one whose authority is expressed through example and sacrifice for the wellbeing of another. Where authority must be exercised counter to the desires of a spouse, it is never simply to fulfill the desires of a husband. It is to submit a family to the desires of God and to build all up in the grace of God.

My wife, Kathy, and I have sometimes described our newlywed year in marriage conferences—four part-time jobs, a small house, a very small bank account. One day, when the washing machine broke, I asked Kathy to call the repairman and I left for work. Days passed and I discovered she still hadn’t called. When I pressed her, she dissolved into tears of shame—afraid she’d do it wrong, cost money we didn’t have, fail.

My honest reaction to that self-doubting response was this: “My word, Kathy—how is it that after only a year of being married to me, you (an amazing musician, scholar, and church leader) feel so incapable that you cannot call a repairman? What have I done to you?”

Honest reflection (and real fear that I was unconsciously repeating behaviors of my parents) caused me to recognize patterns of control and selfishness I had adopted—subtle ways I was building myself up by diminishing my wife. There was no dramatic cruelty. Just the slow erosion of her confidence by my ways of being present.

The gospel husband is willing to ask, “Does my presence in our home give my wife more confidence or less? Does she feel more capable, more treasured, more like herself—or less? What makes these questions appropriate is the example of how Christ’s leadership affects his bride, the church. Through him she is made radiant and made to feel precious, treasured, and equipped for her calling in the world.

Respond: Husbands: where has your presence in your home—even unintentionally—made your wife feel less capable, less confident, less treasured? Where has your way of leading been more about your convenience than her flourishing?

This week, consider asking your wife one honest question: “Is there anything I do that makes you feel less capable or cared for?” And then listen carefully.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, You gave Yourself up for Your bride. You emptied Yourself for her flourishing. Forgive me for the ways I’m tempted to build myself up at my wife’s expense—overtly or subtly, consciously or unconsciously. Help me to be good news when I walk through the door. Help my presence make her more the godly and capable woman you intend her to be, not less. In Your name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 23, 2026

"However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." - Ephesians 5:33

Paul closes this whole passage — a sweeping vision of self-giving love modeled on Christ’s sacrifice — with one final, personal word to each spouse. To husbands: love. To wives: respect. The word translated "respect" here is the same word used in verse 21 for "reverence for Christ." It is a high and costly word. And Paul applies it to the way a wife should regard a flawed, imperfect man.

Of course, no husband deserves to be reverenced the way that we are supposed to reverence our Savior. That is precisely the point. The respect Paul calls for is not contingent on deserving. No mere man deserves reverence. But a wife who reverences her husband is not honoring the man in his imperfection — she is honoring God's purposes for that man, the calling God has placed on his life, the accounting for spiritual leadership he will one day give to God in heaven. A wife gives her husband respect and support for the role God gives him in the home, not because he deserves it but because he needs it. To fulfill his divine calling, every husband needs the support of the wife God has designed to be the help that he requires.

There is a profound truth in this aspect of the apostle’s instruction that is easily missed. It is this: when a man knows he is genuinely respected by the one who knows him best, he is most likely to become the man that God calls him to be. Wives are meant to understand that you get what you give. Respect begets the man worth respecting.

RESPOND: Are the words you speak about your spouse — to others, or to him/her directly — words that build up or tear down? Consider one specific, genuine way you can express respect or love toward your spouse today so that he or she can fulfill the responsibilities God gives them for another’s blessing?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, you have called us to love and respect one another not because we deserve it, but because you first loved us. Give me a heart that sees my spouse through your eyes — as someone you treasure, someone Christ died for. Let my words and my actions reflect that truth, today and every day. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 22, 2026

"The husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior…. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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." Ephesians 5:23, 25–27

Paul's instruction to husbands does not bestow upon them the privileges of those wearing a crown — it outlines the responsibilities of those bearing a cross. The headship he describes is defined entirely by Christ's headship of the church, and that headship expressed itself in self-giving sacrifice. Christ did not use his authority to be served; he used it to serve, to sanctify, and to make his bride radiant to Himself. That is the template Paul hands to every husband.

This means the purposes of a husband's authority are inseparable from the priorities of his service. He leads not to accumulate privilege, but to spend it for the sake of others. He makes decisions not to assert power, but to protect and build up the wife entrusted to his care. The goal Paul sets before husbands is stunning in its tenderness. A husband is to “give himself up for her” that she might grow in godliness, goodness, and splendor based on the example of Christ who similarly provides for his bride, the church. A husband who lives this way is not asking, "What can I claim?" He is asking, "What can I give so that my spouse fully experiences the grace that God intends for her to know and increasingly reflect because of the way that I express His love to her?"

RESPOND: In what areas of your marriage are you more focused on your own comfort or authority than on your spouse's flourishing? What would it look like — concretely, today — to lead by giving?

PRAYER: Jesus, you washed feet. You went to the cross. You made the church radiant by giving everything. I confess how far short I fall of that example. Fill me with your Spirit and your love, so that the one I am called to lead would know, through the way I treat her, more and more how much you treasure her. In Your Name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 21, 2026

"An excellent wife who can find? She is far more precious than jewels. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will have no lack of gain. She does him good, and not harm, all the days of her life." (Proverbs 31:10–12) and “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” (Eph. 5:22)

The Proverbs 31 woman is often referenced on special occasions, but her portrait is striking in its scope. She manages real estate, oversees manufacturing, engages in trade, cares for the poor, and leads her household with wisdom. This is not a picture of a woman whose gifts have been restrained — it is a picture of a woman whose gifts are in full, glorious expression as they are directed toward the flourishing of her family and community.

Proper understanding of the Apostle Paul's call to submission in the home is consistent with this portrait, not in tension with it. The children of a godly wife rise up and call her blessed. Her husband praises her. Why? Not because she does less or suppresses more, but because everything she does is arranged under the priority of blessing others. Her intelligence, her industry, her creativity — all are offered in love for the sake of the good of her husband, family, and community. Just as the church submits to Christ not by doing nothing, but by doing everything in his name and for his glory, so also a wife’s submission is dignified by the goal of bringing good and glory to her spouse. She supports her husband by seeking how best to use her gifts and graces for his blessing. So also the husband is dignified by honoring his calling of sacrificial care for his wife and family.

RESPOND: What gifts has God given you — practically, creatively, intellectually — that could be more deliberately expressed in the service of blessing your spouse and family? What would it look like to offer those gifts more fully, rather than suppressing them or using them primarily for personal gain?

PRAYER: Lord, you have made me capable and gifted. Don't let me bury what you have given me. And don't let me use it only for myself. Show me how to arrange my gifts — every skill, every passion, every strength — in such a way that those closest to me are built up and blessed because I honor your name in the way that I care for them. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 18, 2026

"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands." - Ephesians 5:22–24

The Greek word behind "submit" is hupotasso — two words joined together meaning simply "to arrange under." It is not the language of suppression, domination, or silence. It is the language of a skilled musician arranging her gifts under a conductor's vision, or an athlete channeling her strength toward a team's goal. Nothing is withheld, suppressed, or diminished. Everything is offered with all the skill and giftedness that God has provided for the sake of a greater good.

Paul's example makes this unmistakable. He says that wives are to submit to their husbands as the church submits to Christ. We never tell the church to suppress its singing, stifle its prayers, or hold back its care for one another. We say, “Fully express the gifts and graces God has given you in service of Christ and his purposes.” That same fullness of expression — not a diminished or suppressed version of it — is what Paul has in view for a wife. She submits her mind, heart, and talents not to the enabling of a tyrant, but to the support of a husband whom God has called to give his very life for her spiritual blessing.

RESPOND: Have cultural stereotypes or painful experiences shaped how you hear this passage? Ask God to help you read it through the lens Paul actually provides: a wife is called to express her gifts in support of a husband who is called to love her as sacrificially as Christ has loved us all. How might that perspective change your posture and your priorities in your marriage today?

PRAYER: Father, strip away the distortions — the abuses and the stereotypes — that make your Word hard to hear. Let me see this passage as you intended it: a call to full and flourishing love. Where submission feels like loss, remind me it is the path Christ himself walked. Give me courage and grace to walk it too for the sake of another. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 17, 2026

"…Do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is…, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ." - Ephesians 5:17, 21

Before Paul addresses wives or husbands individually, he lays a foundation for relationships that bless everyone: mutual submission rooted in love for Christ. This is not weakness — it is the posture of those fulfilling Christ’s purposes for others in a Spirit-filled church. Paul has spent the whole previous letter to the Ephesian church building toward this moment, calling believers to "walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us" (5:2). Submission, then, is an apex word for Christ-like, self-giving love applied to our most important and intimate relationships.

The word Paul uses here is the same word he later applies to wives’ responsibilities as they submit to their husbands’ needs, and to the church as it submits to Christ’s priorities. It is not a word for suppression or silence. In strict translation the word “submission” means to arrange one's gifts, energies, and will under the priorities of another's good. When wives do this, as husbands are simultaneously obeying Christ’s command to give themselves sacrificially for their wives’ good — each pouring themselves into the blessing of the other, then marriage becomes a living picture of the gospel.

RESPOND: Where in your closest relationships are you most tempted to insist on your own way for your own good, rather than to act selflessly for another’s good? What would it look like today to arrange your gifts — your time, your words, your attention — under the priorities of that person's spiritual blessing?

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, Your Son did not grasp equality with You but emptied Himself of heavenly power and privileges our sake. Teach me the same posture — not demanding my rights but offering my gifts. Fill me with your Spirit so that submission flows not merely from duty but from deep love for you and for the ones you have placed in my life. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 16, 2026

“For at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.

Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” - Ephesians 5:8-9

My adult son built a climbing wall up the side of his vaulted living room when the Covid pandemic required our families to shelter in place. The pegs on the wall were a sacrifice of the family’s living space provided to give my son’s children something to do and to show them that they were more special than the appearance of the wall.

What my son didn’t anticipate was how the climbing wall enabled his children to do far more than he or they expected. The pegs on the wall got the children just high enough that they could reach the staircase railing to a higher floor of the house and climb all the way to the balcony above—far higher than they’d ever been, far higher than anyone expected.

The provision the children’s father made to prove their preciousness to him gave them the ability to go far higher than they had previously been able or thought possible.

That is akin to the point the Apostle Paul is making in Ephesians 5:8-9. Paul says that we were once darkness. But now—because of what Christ has done, because of the Father’s sacrifice on your behalf, because you are a dearly loved child—you are light in the Lord. So, walk as the children of God that you are.

Such walking will take you higher than you expected. God’s provision will take you beyond whatever you have been able to do under your own power and abilities. The joy of the Lord becomes your strength. The security of being beloved produces fruit you couldn’t manufacture by your own effort.

Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, once walked the mountain trails of Switzerland asking whether God was real in the light of the hypocrisies he witnessed in the church. What he rediscovered—gradually, honestly—was the meaning of Christ’s work in a moment-by-moment relationship with God. He came to recognize more and more that such a relationship was not and could not be based on his performance – he failed just as those whose hypocrisies he observed. Nor could a relationship with God be based on intellect. He still had more questions than the processes of his mind could satisfy.

Rather, he recognized that a relationship with God had to be based on the provision of God. That meant God had to sacrifice something – something as significant as the blood of his own Son – to make a way as high as heaven.

The sacrifice of Jesus Christ not only was necessary, it was an assurance of pardon, privilege, and divine love.

Perceiving this truth, Schaeffer said, “I’m filled with joy provided by the reality of the goodness of God.”

Such joy is the basis of our strength, too. Such joy – not manufactured, but received; not earned, but granted – is not only the enabling power of the Christian life, it is the reality that makes our walk of faith not mere duty but a delight.

Respond: Do you remember what it felt like when you first understood your sin was forgiven and you were a child of God? The joy that filled you—not because you were perfect, but because you were beloved?

Schaeffer said that joy had gone a long way from him. And his renewal began when he reclaimed it—not by achieving more, but by returning to the simple, profound reality: Christ has made a way. I am treasured. I am beloved.

This week, it may help you to take a walk to reclaim that truth. You may not have mountain trails to ascend, but maybe just trip around the block or up a stairwell will give you a chance to remember the provision your Heavenly Father made for you. Don’t approach it as a task or a discipline. Approach it as a child climbing a wall, discovering that the Father’s sacrificial investment in you has taken you higher than you imagined you could go.

Prayer: Father, I was darkness—but now I am light in the Lord. That is what You have done, not because of what I have achieved but by your sacrifice. You proved me to be Your beloved child by your provision for me. Let the joy of that truth return to me with fresh power. Let it be my strength—not for performing but for walking, naturally, as a child of light in the light of the Your love. Let the fruit appear not from striving but from remembering how dearly loved I am. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 15, 2026

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice… But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetousness must not even be named among you… Let there be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place, but instead let there be thanksgiving.” - Ephesians 4:31, 5:3-4

There are two ways to establish your standing before God without actually depending on God: celebrate what you know, or celebrate what you do.

In Ephesus, the Greek believers celebrated the intellect. The Jewish believers celebrated religious practice. And both groups ended up playing the same game: the religion of comparison. I build myself up by making you smaller. My sophistication versus your simplicity. My devotion versus your paganism.

It sounds innocent enough—after all, the Bible does call us to worship God with our minds and to pursue holy lives. Still, the core problem doesn’t reside in one’s intellect or devotion. The problem – for our relationship with Jesus – comes when we begin to think that our knowledge or behavior is the basis for our standing before God rather than the grace Jesus provides for us. Inevitabley, when we diminish our dependence on his grace, then we begin to believe and act as though our standing with God is maintained by how favorably we compare with the beliefs or behaviors of others.

The examples Paul provides are not pleasant to consider, but they are important: Crude speech that reduces or objectifies other people; anger at others who make us feel less important; bitterness that refuses to release the debt of someone who diminished us. All these are the consequence of striving to maintain our standing with God, with others, or with our own self-estimation by reacting to whatever diminishes the status we had on the basis of some comparison with others.

Paul says in verse 5 that covetousness (comparing what we have to what others have) is idolatry—worshiping something for your happiness that God didn’t intend for you to have. We immediately think of material things. But you can covet a reputation. You can covet the regard of others. You can covet the right to be seen as more sophisticated, more devoted, more right than the people around you.

And when such comparison-religion operates in a church community—even subtly—it produces exactly what Paul lists: bitterness and wrath and anger and slander. Because comparison always eventually becomes resentment. The person who threatens your standing must be diminished. The group who thinks differently must be ridiculed.

The antidote Paul offers is not effort—it’s identity. You are a beloved child of God. Your standing is not earned by comparison. It is given. Therefore you have no need to doubt your status and no person you need to diminish.

Respond: Where is the religion of comparison operating in your heart? Where are you establishing your value by knowing more or doing more than someone else? Where is quiet contempt—for someone’s beliefs, someone’s practices, someone’s failures—maintaining your sense of worth by comparison?

Though it may be hard for you, I want to ask you to identify one person or group you’ve been comparing yourself to favorably to give yourself a sense of worth or spiritual value. Ask God to show you how that comparison has shaped your attitude toward them. And then claim the identity that makes comparison unnecessary: you are already beloved.

Prayer: Father, expose in me the religion of comparison I didn’t know I was practicing. I too easily build myself up by diminishing others—their lack of knowledge, their insincere devotion, their consistent inconsistency. You call me not to compare but to walk in love, as Christ loved me and gave Himself for me. Let the gospel dismantle my comparison religion and replace it with the security of a beloved child who has nothing to prove and no one to diminish. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 14, 2026

“Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us… for at one time you were darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Walk as children of light, for the fruit of light is found in all that is good and right and true.” - Ephesians 5:1-2, 8-9

Christian philosopher, Francis Schaeffer, made an observation that became one of the most quoted statements in modern Christian thought: “We need not only an orthodoxy of doctrine—what we believe—we need an orthodoxy of community—rightness in the way that we treat one another.”

He had fought for decades for the truth of Scripture. And he was right to fight. The Bible is true. The resurrection is real. Biblical doctrine matters.

But Schaeffer came to see that doctrine without love produces a church that is, in his words, “a dead, ugly orthodoxy—sub-Christian.” Truth that does not produce beauty in human relationships is not functioning the way Christ intended.

“True Christianity produces beauty as well as truth, especially in the specific areas of human relationships. If we do not show beauty in the way that we treat each other, then in the eyes of the world—and in the eyes of our children—we are denying the truth we proclaim.”

The fruit that Scripture’s light produces, the Apostle Paul says, is found in all that is good and right and true. Not just in correct belief—in actual goodness in how we treat one another. Actual rightness in how we respond to hurt or disdain. Actual truth in the way that we seek and secure relationships.

The question that nearly broke Schaeffer’s faith was: “If Christ is really indwelling His people, where is the evidence?” Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control—the fruit of the Spirit. Where is it?

That same question is being asked by a watching world right now. Not “do Christians believe the right things?” but “does it make them different? Does it make them better to be around? Does Christ seem real in the way they treat people?”

If the church holds up its doctrine and then speaks spitefully of others, the world wins and Christ’s witness loses. If the church holds up its love and sets aside its doctrine, Christ’s truth loses. Only when both are held together does the witness of Jesus advance his kingdom’s purposes.

Respond: Where is your church or Christian community showing the fruit of light—goodness, rightness, truth in relationships? And where is the orthodoxy of doctrine present but the orthodoxy of community absent?

This is not primarily a question about others in your church or community. It’s a question about you. Where in your own relationships—with your spouse, your children, your coworkers, your church family—is the fruit of light visible? And where is it absent?

Ask God to produce through you what Francis Schaeffer said is the revolutionary witness of the gospel of Jesus: not just right belief but “biblical love for the unlovely.”

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I want to hold doctrine and love together—not one without the other. Where I’ve been orthodox in belief but ugly in community, forgive me. Where I’ve been kind but untethered from truth, correct me. Produce in me the fruit of light—all that is good and right and true—so that my life becomes evidence that You are real and living and present. In Your name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 11, 2026

“Therefore be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” - Ephesians 5:1-2

“Be imitators of God.”

Four simple words. Piece of cake. Easy as pie.

Or so it seems, until you actually do some honest soul searching about what it would mean to be an imitator of God. That would mean—no bitterness, no unmetered wrath, no slander, tenderhearted forgiveness toward everyone, sexual purity, no coveting, no crude speech, contentment in all things. Such honest consideration would reveal something immediately: this simple command requires more heart than you’ve got.

Paul is not naive. He knows what he’s asking. He’s writing to a church full of Greek philosophers and Jewish practitioners who are all, in different ways, trying to establish their standing before God through what they know or what they do. And he says: none of that is enough. You must imitate, that is, perfectly reflect God Himself.

But then—before this demand crushes our hearts under its holy weight—he adds three words that change everything: “as beloved children.”

Not “as people who are trying hard.” Not “as people who must earn their standing before God.” Rather, serve your Heavenly Father “as beloved children.” It is so important that we note this identity granted comes before the imitation commanded. Love comes before obedience.

In a social-media-saturated culture, a pressured mom once confessed what others’ perfect-family posts and the constant barrage of advice articles had done to her. They shamed her so much that she struggled to get out of bed each morning.

The antidote was not “try harder.” It was the message of Scripture from an understanding friend: “You are the beloved child of God. Nobody can make you insignificant or ashamed without your own cooperation. You stop cooperating with the shamers when you claim your identity in Christ.”

Before your first failure or your last failure, you were God’s dearly beloved—loved as much as He loves Jesus. That is not a reward for imitation. It is the ground from which imitation grows as it is watered and strengthened by the truth of God’s unconditional grace.

Respond: Are you approaching the Christian life as a qualification for God’s love—trying to earn your standing by what you know or what you do? Or are you approaching it as the response of a beloved child—loved already, responding to love rather than performing for approval?

This week, try saying out loud before you begin each day: “I am a beloved child of God. Jesus makes that true regardless of my successes or failures. What I do today is my response to the love he has already secured—not my attempt to earn it.”

Prayer: Father, I confess that I’m tempted to approach You as someone trying to qualify, not as someone already beloved. I instinctively perform to gain the approval You’ve already given. Let your promised provision of grace sink deep—I am Your dearly loved child. Loved as much as You love Jesus. Before my first failure. After my last one. Let that truth change how I live today—not striving to earn your love, but responding to it. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 10, 2026

“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” - Ephesians 4:31-32

Francis Schaeffer was one of the greatest Christian philosophers of the 20th century—but he nearly walked away from the faith entirely. Not because of intellectual doubts. Because of what he saw in the church.

Time and again, he witnessed church leaders, who defended the truth of Scripture and said they represented Jesus’s priorities, speak as spitefully as anyone in the world about their political enemies, their church enemies, their family enemies. These leaders claimed the indwelling presence of Christ while demonstrating almost none of His fruit. Schaeffer more and more felt that he belonged to a church that spoke of Jesus but sounded like the world.

So, the philosopher and pastor asked an honest question: “How is the church any different from the world? And if it is no different, is the living presence of Christ real at all?”

Paul’s words in Ephesians 4 address the realities of these issues. The apostle makes clear what makes the church’s witness of Jesus to philosophers and ordinary people wither? Bitterness. Wrath. Anger. Slander. Malice. Not out-and-out evil—just the ordinary habits of a competitive, comparison-driven community that builds itself up by tearing others down.

The kinds of bitterness and division that Paul was addressing in Ephesus still exist today. In the apostle’s time, Greek believers who celebrated the intellect, compared themselves to others in the church and said, “I know more than you.” Jewish believers who celebrated rigorous religious practices, responded with the retort, “I do more than you.” Each camp was establishing its standing before God by comparing itself favorably to the other.

We can recognize the attitudes immediately because we still carry them and express them. Snarky comments. Mean-spirited texts. Sarcasm about other camps. Unwillingness to forgive grievances of the past. Not allowing people to grow or change. Gathering with like-minded people and throwing collective ridicule at those who differ.

The witness of the church withers still with such comments and behaviors. These are not dramatic failures of morality or doctrine, but are the infections of pride and party spirit that cause the competition and comparison that blooms into bitterness and withers witness.

Respond: Where is bitterness, comparison, or quiet contempt leaking into your relationships—in your church, your family, your community?

Schaeffer’s faith crisis began not with doubts about God’s truth but with what he observed in God’s people. However, his renewal of faith began when he looked inside himself rather than at the misbehaviors of others. When he recognized his own need for Jesus’ heart to keep from being bitter over others’ meanness and pride, then he knew again how much he needed a Savior – and how Jesus brought real peace to hearts like his own.

Where have the attitudes of the world crept into your witness without your noticing? This week, audit one relationship where comparison or resentment has been quietly at work. Name it honestly before God. And ask for what Paul promises is available—tenderhearted forgiveness, not manufactured but received from the One who first forgave you.

Prayer: Father, I confess that bitterness and comparison have been leaking into my witness without my fully noticing. I’ve built myself up by diminishing others, justifying my bitterness by their failures. I’ve withheld a heart of mercy that You’ve freely extended to me. Forgive me. Let all bitterness be put away from me—not by my effort alone but by the power of the One who forgave me first. Let the words of my mouth and the expressions of my heart sound like Christ, not like the world. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Through The Bible in a Year - September 9, 2026

“Remembering you in my prayers… that you may know … …what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead… and he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.” -Ephesians 1:19-23

Paul wants the Ephesians to see the power available to them—and to understand its scale. So, he points to the most important display of divine power in all of history: the resurrection.

Not just another nature miracle. Not just the healing or feeding thousands. Paul points to the power that reached into death itself, broke it open, and brought Jesus out the other side—that is the power at work in and for everyone who believes.

Paul explains the magnitude of that miracle saying: that same Jesus “raised from the dead” has been placed “far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come.” Every threatening thing you can name—every disease, every political power, every fear, every force that feels bigger than you—is under the feet of the risen Jesus.

And this Jesus, who is the ultimate ruler over all earthly domains, gives Himself “as head over all things to the church which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” The same Jesus who rules is the Jesus who cares and his glory will ultimately fill all things in all places.

Like monarch butterflies gathering by the millions in Mexico—each one a tiny thing with wings making nearly no sound alone but gathered together, creating the sound of a pounding surf, filling every sense—that’s how Jesus is building his Church. Our Lord is working across time and space until the influence of the Church, Christ’s body, fills the world. Through faithful believers in corporate worship and work, the influence of faith is spreading over continents and communities until all are filled with the glory of Jesus.

Respond: What feels bigger than God’s power in your life right now? What rule, authority, power, or dominion—in your circumstances, your body, your relationships, your nation, your church—seems too large to be under Jesus’ feet?

Paul prays that the eyes of your heart would open to see the immeasurable greatness of God’s power that is greater than all else. Not your power. Not the church’s power. His.

What is troubling you? What feels too big for God to handle? What have you lost confidence can be worked for good. Name it and then place it, by faith, under the feet of the risen Jesus. In prayer affirm, “Lord, this problem is real, but Jesus is risen. I believe that He is seated in authority above every name that is named, including the name of this thing. Since His power is immeasurably great, give me an extra measure of faith to trust you and be faithful to you in the face of this problem.”

Prayer: Heavenly Father, You raised Jesus from the dead and seated Him at your right hand, far above every rule and authority and power and dominion—above every thing I could name that I’m afraid of right now. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is at work in me and for me. Open the eyes of my heart to see that power—not theoretically, but really. Let me live today from the reality of Jesus’ resurrection. Whatever is threatening to overwhelm me, remind me that You are greater. You will ultimately fill all in all with Christ’s glory. Please fill my heart with the peace of confidence in that promise. In Jesus’ name, Amen.