Knowing Your Identity in Christ: I am the Bride of Christ (Ephesians 5:21-27)

What if understanding biblical submission and Christ-like love could transform the way your family serves, honors, and cares for one another every day?

In this episode of 7 Minute Devotions for Busy Parents, host Christen Clark dives deep into Ephesians 5, exploring what it really means to be the bride of Christ. With relatable stories like snow on her wedding day, Christen unpacks tough topics like submission and love, showing busy Christian parents how these biblical truths can transform the way we approach raising Christian kids, building discipleship into family time, and nurturing spiritual growth in the middle of real-life chaos.

• [00:01:10] Marriage as a picture of Christ and the Church
• [00:05:05] Rethinking submission and love

Resources:

• Instagram: @7minutedevotions, @christenclark
• Family Podcast: @collidekidspodcast

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Hello and welcome back to 7-Minute Devotions for Busy Parents. I'm Kristen Clark. I'm a mom, a wife, a speaker, a ministry leader. I'm the host of two podcasts, this one and another one, and someone juggling a few different part-time jobs while trying to faithfully follow Jesus and raise a family in the middle of real life, right alongside you. And that is honestly why I created this podcast, because life is busy and sometimes we need a few minutes to slow down, refocus our hearts, and remember what's true from God's word. Speaking of podcasts, if you haven't checked out my other show, the Collide Kids Podcast, I would love for you to listen sometime. It's designed for the whole family to enjoy together with conversations that help kids and parents discover their purpose, faith, and how God has uniquely created them. So I'd love for you to listen. Well, today we're gonna look at a passage at Ephesians that can bring up a lot of conversation, especially around marriage, husbands, wives, love, and the S word, submission. So don't wait, don't turn off this episode yet. While those conversations are very important, today I want us to look at the bigger picture that Paul is pointing us towards because this passage, Paul is showing us another identity that we have in Christ. I am the bride of Christ. First, he says in verse 21, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And then he goes on to talk about wives, husbands, submission, love. And I know this passage can feel very emotionally charged because there are so many differing views and experiences connected to it. But I want us to zoom in for a minute and just look at what he's talking as he gives us this instruction for marriage. He's also using marriage as an illustration to teach us something deeply important about Christ in the church. We are the bride of Christ. And honestly, that can really change the way we read this passage. Throughout the entire book of Ephesians, Paul has been teaching us about our identity. In the first half of the book, he teaches who we are because of Jesus. And now in the second half, Paul is teaching us how to live from that identity in our homes, our churches, our relationships, and our communities. So when he talks about marriage here, he's not just giving relationship advice, he's pointing us to Jesus. Paul says Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her so that he might present the church to himself in splendor without spot or wrinkle or blemish. That is bridal language, prepared, purified, loved. I remember before my wedding day being so worried about keeping my dress clean and perfect. As you know, once you put on your wedding dress, suddenly everything feels dangerous. Everybody's trying to fluff it and straighten it and make sure it looks right, just right before you walk down the aisle. You're carefully walking around, trying not to wrinkle it or spill something on it or step on the bottom of it. For me, it snowed on my wedding day and it snowed really hard. And it started right when the ceremony began. So thankfully we were already inside. But then we had to get in cars and drive to the reception at the country club down the road and walk along gravel paths to get to the entrance. The snow was so beautiful and made for some amazing pictures. However, unfortunate for my wedding dress, the bottom hymn had just a little bit of spot, wrinkle, and blemish. But I think that image that Paul is giving us makes this verse so much more powerful because no matter how hard we try spiritually, we could never make ourselves spotless enough to stand before a holy God on our own. We can't clean ourselves up enough. We can't fix every flaw. We can't make ourselves righteous by striving harder, but Christ can. That's why this passage is so beautiful. Christ covers us with his righteousness so that he can present his bride, the church, holy and blameless before God. We are able to stand before a holy God, not because we're perfect, but because Jesus was willing to sacrifice himself for us. And that brings us to these two important words in this passage: submission and love. Submission is a word people often struggle with because we tend to associate it with weakness or inferiority. But the word itself simply means to come under in rank or authority. It was often used as a military term. And yes, there are some authority structures in our lives. But what I think is especially important in this passage is that Paul begins by saying we're to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. That means the posture of the believer is not selfishness, it's humility. It's considering others, it's serving others, it's choosing not to only live for ourselves. And ultimately, our greatest submission is to Christ. We submit to him because he is our head, our authority. And what's amazing is that Jesus modeled submission perfectly. He submitted to the Father's will, even to the point of death on the cross, not because he was weak, but because he loves us, which brings us to the second word, love. The word used here is the Greek word agape, which means unconditional sacrificial love. It's a love based out of decision. It's not a love based on performance or something that demands repayment. One theologian described agape love this way: it's not simply an emotion that rises and falls, but a principle by which we deliberately live. I love that because it reminds us that biblical love is more than feelings. It's a choice, it's a posture, it's a willingness to seek someone else's good, even when it costs us something. And that's exactly what Jesus did for us. He loved the unlovable. He pursued us while we were still sinners and he gave himself for his bride. And just as a husband and wife plan for a future together, Christ has also prepared a future for his church. There is hope ahead for us. There is an eternity ahead for us. We are the bride of Christ and we are being prepared for glory. So I'll say them through. And then at the very end, I want you to say the identity statement one more time with me. So our identity statement for today is I am the bride of Christ. Christ loved the church and gave himself for us, making us holy and blameless before God. Because I am the bride of Christ, I submit to him, receive his sacrificial love, and reflect that love and how I serve others. Let's say the identity statement one more time. I am the bride of Christ. Let's pray. God, we thank you so much for demonstrating submission and love through Jesus and the sacrificial love that He gave to us by dying on the cross for us. And God, we just are so grateful for all the different ways that you are teaching us to submit and to love and to extend that to our children. God, help us to have that posture of humility in our homes and in our communities. Teach us to serve others well and to not think of ourselves and to follow your example. God, we thank you so much that you love us even when we are unlovable. And we thank you for the hope that we have in eternity. Thank you that we are your bride and we love you and we are so grateful for all you've done for us in Jesus' name. Amen. Friend, I hope that today's episode reminded you that you are deeply loved by Christ. You are part of his church, his bride, and he gave himself for you. And if this passage is one that you want to study more deeply, I encourage you to do that. Open your Bible, read the full passage. It's Ephesians 5, 21 through 27. Ask the Holy Spirit to teach you something from it. And like they used to say on Reading Rainbow, don't just take my word for it. Read it for yourselves. Sometimes the passages that challenge us the most are the ones that grow us the most. Thanks so much for listening today and remember who you are and who you belong to.