Read Ephesians 5:22-28

My husband and I decided to read this together. Something that struck us was how these Biblical roles play to each genders natural strengths and against their biggest temptations. By women being called to submit, God is using women’s innate ability for relationship and against the temptation to manipulate (i.e. Eve). And by having men lead the family, God is using men’s natural desire for action and against the temptation to be passive or “check out” (i.e. Adam). It is amazing but not surprising how well God knows us since He is the One who designed us and designed marriage to reflect the beautiful, respectful, and loving relationship between Christ and the Church!

  We see throughout Scripture that being on mission together forges deep friendships. If you are not serving, we are missing out on your gifts, and you are missing out on the thrill to be a part of what God's doing. In the book of Acts, we read that Paul, Priscilla, and Aquila are a part of what God’s doing together. God lets them plant, start, and house the early church. This couple who didn't preach sermons and whose names aren’t famous changed the world and likely changed your life because of what they did for Christ’s Church. Why? Because they were faithful! They just kept showing up. When Paul writes the letter to the Romans in a few years, he ends it with the following statement in Roman 16:3; “Greet Priscilla and Aquila, my co-workers in Christ Jesus”. Now notice there he switches their names from how he referenced them in previous letters, “Aquila and Priscilla” and now “Priscilla and Aquila”. Why does he do that? Well, usually in Greek, whoever's name you put first was the one that was most involved and most important. But here you see that they're alternating. It means that two of them were running together, and that's the kind of marriage you want. You don't want to drag somebody. No one wants to be dragged, and no one wants to drag. So, if you're dating someone, and you have to drag the church then that's great evaluation material to know that's probably not a great long-term relationship. You want someone you can lock hands with and run at the same pace for the purposes God has for your marriage and your life. You're making a difference together. Your marriage is most alive when you're on mission together. Discussion/Reflection Questions: Are you living your life on mission? If you are married or dating, are you and your significant other keeping pace with one another?

When we ask people how they are nowadays, the answer we often get is “busy”. We love to fill our schedules up to where we are on the go at all times that we are awake during our day. But are you busy to the point that you aren't noticing the people and opportunities that God is putting in your path that you are meant to step into? If someone wants to ask you a question about your faith and why you believe in Jesus, are you penciling them into your calendar for a 15-minute time slot sometime next week or are you making yourself available in those moments to invest in people? We know from Scripture that Priscilla and Aquila were tent makers by profession, and also likely had lots of other tasks that kept their days pretty busy, but they didn’t let this get in the way of their ministry and their marriage being on mission. They were a couple that made their home, their schedules, and their lives available for whatever God had planned. Even if it wasn’t what they had planned originally. Their availability to whatever or whoever God put in their path was one of the reasons that they were able to make such a lasting impact on so many people. They put their marriage on mission by being available to meet the needs of those around them. Our prayer would be that we would be a community where if there's a ministry being led well in the city, we just go and support that. We ask what are your needs? How can we help you? You need supplies? We've got it! You need volunteers? Let's get them! The Church will look more like Jesus Christ when we see a need and make ourselves available to meet it, even when it’s not easy or convenient.  Discussion/Reflection Questions: Have you been too busy lately to make yourself available to the needs of the people around you? What do you need to do to change your availability?

God strengthens those who want to bring glory to him. If you want to help people know God, then he’s going to powerfully move in you. Priscilla and Aquila end up changing and touching the world through their faithfulness, but it started by them saying, “God, here's our home. Here's our business. Here's our life. What do you want?” They were hospitable. And a marriage on mission is a hospitable marriage.  1 Peter 4:8-11 speaks of hospitality too. These verses state, “Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. If anyone speaks, they should do so as one who speaks the very words of God. If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ.” Something that we can all love about this passage in first Peter is that we see you don't have to be brilliant to be used by God. You just have to be available. You have to say: My home, my life, our marriage, God, whatever you want to do, use that. It's not just that we do ministry and then go to our home. Our life is for the Lord. If you make your home a house of ministry, it's powerful what God can accomplish there. After all, the church of Corinth started in the living room of Priscilla and Aquila.  Discussion/Reflection Question: Are you available to have your home, life, and marriage used by God in whatever ways necessary to get more people to know Christ?

We can’t let the enemy convince us that our homes can't be a place of life and spiritual growth for your family and others in your community. Having an open home invites opportunities that touch our society and even the world. Are you open for that? We read later in Acts that Paul has to leave Corinth and go to Ephesus. Luke, who wrote the book of Acts, makes a big point about the fact that Priscilla, Aquila, and Paul all moved to Ephesus. They moved there together. And then, Paul leaves to go back to his home base in Antioch, and he leaves Priscilla and Aquila in Ephesus. Luke, in his writing, continues to make a big deal about this fact that they had to stay while Paul left. We find out why this is a big deal in verse 24 though.  Luke says a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, came to Ephesus. He was an eloquent man, competent in the Scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, but his knowledge was incomplete. So here, Priscilla and Aquila moved to a new town of Ephesus, and Paul, their spiritual leader, has to leave, and a new spiritual leader comes and he's faithful, but his knowledge of the Gospel's lacking. What did they do? They took him aside and explained to him the way of God, more accurately. They didn't sit back and judge him, but instead, they treated him like Christ would and showed him love and grace, despite his incomplete knowledge. Discussion/Reflection Questions: Do you have a home that is open to be a place of life? If you don’t, what can you do to foster this type of home? If you do, what more can you do to encourage others to have similar homes?