15. READ: EPHESIANS 5:22-32
e. What does Christ do for His church?
Answer: Christ feeds and cares for His church (verse 29).
Paul states that husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies, and that he who loves his wife loves himself. Then he says that no one ever hated his own body, but the he feeds and cares for it. If the husband and wife become "one flesh," then for the man to love his wife is to love one who has become part of himself.
The phrase "feeds and cares for" is very important to understand, so that we see the beautiful comparison between Christ feeding and caring for His church (which is His bride, and which is His body) and a husband feeding and caring for his own body, which now includes his wife.
The words "feeds" and "cares for" are also translated "nourishes" and "cherishes" in the New King James Version of the Bible.
"Feeds" or "nourishes" comes from the Greek word ektrepho. It is found only here, and in Ephesians 6:4. There it is used for bringing up children. Thayer defines it: "1. "to nourish up to maturity;' then universally "to nourish' (as here in Ephesians 5:29). 2. "to nurture, bring up' (as in Ephesians 6:4)." It suggests the idea of a husband caring tenderly for his wife, as a mother might care for her child.
"Cares for" or "cherishes" is the Greek verb thalpo. It literally means "keep warm," and so figuratively "cherish, comfort." Thayer writes: "Like the Latin foveo, the meaning here is "to cherish' with tender love, "to foster' with tender care." The word is found only here and in 1 Thessalonians 2:7.
Thus, Paul gives the ideal relationship between a husband and wife, and can't help but make a comparison to Christ and His bride, which is His body, the church. We who belong to Christ are His body, and He tenderly nourishes us up to maturity so that we are brought up, or grow up, in Him. All of this is done with tender love and care, as He is continually fostering us, continually watching over our progress and continually teaching, training, leading, guiding, praising, encouraging, and disciplining us along every step of the Way home to the Father:
Hebrews 13:5-6: "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.' So we say with confidence, 'The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?'"
Revelation 19:7-8: "'Let us rejoice and be glad and give Him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.' (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)"
What happens to those who would NOT be fed/nourished or cared for/cherished by Christ? What is their nourishment? What care do they receive?
Matthew 23:37-39: [Jesus said,] "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing. Look, your house is left to you desolate. For I tell you, you will not see Me again until you say, 'Blessed is He Who comes in the Name of the Lord.'"
Hebrews 10:26-31: "If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him Who said, 'It is mine to avenge; I will repay,' and again, 'The Lord will judge His people.' It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
2 Peter 2:20-22: "If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. Of them the proverbs are true: 'A dog returns to its vomit,' and, 'A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud.'"