Touching the Important in Bible Study

I love it when something brings my heart back to what is important.  I am teaching a Sunday morning Bible class, currently on Ephesians, and we are in chapter 5.  So I prepared a worksheet on Ephesians 5:19-33, a passage where the relationship of husband and wife is compared to that of Christ and the church.  I took a look at the Greek text as well as several English and Swahili translations, and it always amazes me how much the translations lose by using logical and meaning-filled words instead of staying with the graphic and image-producing Biblical language.

  Just one small example -- the language used to describe Christians' relationship to one another and that of wife to husband.  The Biblical image is that of arranging things where they belong, putting that which is highly regarded in the prominent place.  It's like stacking papers, putting the most important document on top.  Or like God's creation, where he puts everything in order in the universe and sets one of his creatures on top. Or like putting fruits and vegetables in a bowl, where you put the tomatoes on top so they won't get mashed.  We do that for one another, and wives do that for their husbands.  That is so much richer than "submit" or the Swahili "stahi" (which almost no one uses in normal speech).  And it puts wives in charge of their relationship, where they ought to be, since marriage is a voluntary involvement.  

  My study led me to 1 Peter 3:1-8, where I found what I think is the most wonderful statement of the marriage relationship.  Peter, who traveled with his wife on his mission journeys, says that a husband is to treat his wife with HONOR as she shares with him in the inheritance of LIFE!  That is just great!  Another rich graphic image is that he says to treat her as the "weaker vessel."  We often dislike both of those words -- "Am I weak?", she asks as she arm wrestles him into submission.  "Am I just a vessel, like a tool?"  But if we see his image as he states it, it is rich and good.  Husband and wife are both vessels, and she is the fragile beauty.  It's like having a stainless steel kettle for heating water on one hand and a slender glass tea steeper on the other, or a pottery plate up beside the fine china.  Which one do you take most care with, which one do you protect most, which one do you cherish and put in a special place?  That is the task of the husband, to make a place for the beauty he has found and won with love. 

  And so I went into the kitchen and found Darlene and hugged her for a long time and told her I have remembered why I love her so much.