A Covenant Centered on God — David Platt

The Church Covenant and the Grace of God

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, let me invite you to open with me to 2 Timothy chapter three. 2 Timothy chapter three. Praise God, He clothes us in the righteousness of Christ. This morning, we are in the second week of looking at a church covenant for the faith family called the Church at Brookhills.

Last week, we looked at the value, the benefit of church covenant. We saw how it's not mandated in Scripture by any means, not prohibited by Scripture, and just want to remind you that in no way are we saying that the new covenant we have in Christ needs to be improved on or needs to be added to.

It's a completely different picture. We relate to God through faith alone in Christ alone. Church covenant is an expression of our relationship to one another. It's not a new burden we put on each other, now we gotta do this.

No, it's really an expression of who we are according to the Word of Christ and what the Word of Christ says about us as a community of faith and a central prominent expression. It's a reminder to us.

This is not about having a blood signing covenant ceremony. This is about us continually reminding ourselves. This is what it means to be the body of Christ. And you see in your notes, on the front page of those notes there, a pretty significant chunk of this church covenant for our faith family.

And it's a pretty significant chunk because there's really, I don't believe, anything in those three paragraphs that is new or surprising or something we've not already looked at intensively in the Word at different points.

We started last week, and I meant to put this on there, I apologize, but the first sentence from last week as members of the Church of Brook Hills, we affirm this covenant one another by God's grace for our good and ultimately for God's glory.

Last week we talked about how we are a community of faith only by the grace of God. And the only way we will survive as a community of faith is by the grace of God. And by the grace of God, we promote one another's good and we live to demonstrate God's glory in the way we relate to one another.

And so in light of that, the covenant starts by saying some things. I just want us to walk through this, and we're gonna walk through this briefly, again, because there's really nothing new here. When we get to a couple of points in a few weeks that are somewhat new, they're not new in Scripture, they're things that Scripture talks about, but not things we've really looked at as a community of faith, and we're gonna camp out on those things in particular.

But when you look at this, I hope you see the word, the grace of God all over this picture, an expression of who we already are. Having been brought by divine grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's a foundational understanding of conversion, what it means to be a Christian.

Come to Christ, you turn from yourselves, you trust in Christ, and to surrender our lives to him. We've looked at Luke 14, and if anyone would come after me, he must give up everything he has. This is not just having a savior on the side in our lives that we can compartmentalize, he's Lord of everything.

Our lives belong to him. It's what it means to be a follower of Christ. And having been baptized as Christians in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, as we've seen, we've studied, a baptism is a public identification with Christ or with his church.

It's a matter of obedience in a relationship with Christ, one of the first things we do once we've trusted in Christ. I praise God for the number of brothers and sisters who have followed Christ in obedience through baptism and are in the process of doing that now.

If you have still not been baptized as a follower of Christ, let me encourage you to do that, to follow Christ in that way as soon as possible, in obedience to him. This is what it means to be a follower of Christ and be a part of the church.

Making Disciples and Loving One Another

Then it says, we covenant together to glorify God by making disciples of all nations. That's what we spent the whole month of February looking at, if you had to nail down one sentence that sums up our faith family, what is the Church of Brook Hills about?

We are about glorifying God by making disciples of all nations. Now the question is, how does that play out in the way we relate to one another and the way we live in community as a church with one another?

And that's what a church covenant expresses, how we express our commitment to one another, our commitment to love one another. And we've studied Hebrews chapter 10, verse 19 through 25, talked about this last week.

The author of Hebrews says, as recipients of a new covenant, because we are a community united by the new covenant we have in Christ, he says three phrases, let us draw near to God, let us hold fast to the hope we profess, and let us consider how we can spur one another on toward love and good deeds.

And so there are three phrases. This is what we do together as a result of our covenant with Christ. And so there's three kind of bullets, so to speak, in this church covenant. Two of them are listed there and they're based on Hebrews chapter 10, those three let us statements.

Let us draw near to God and worship. What does that mean? Scripture's abundant. This is just a picture, I hope a representative picture. We will, together, we will delight in the glory of God, depend on the presence of God, grow in the knowledge of God, and submit to the word of God as the all-sufficient authority in our lives and in his church.

And you see all the scriptures that are listed there. Then Hebrews 10, 23 says, let us hold fast to the hope we profess. So together, we will hold fast to the hope we profess. Now, Hebrews chapter 10, that's not a specific allusion to the Lord's Supper, but when we look in the New Testament church, we see that the Lord's Supper was the central celebration of hope for the people of God.

It was their gathering together and saying, we hope in what Christ has done and the fact that Christ is coming back for us. And so we've studied, we've looked at the importance of the Lord's Supper. A few weeks ago, we did that and we saw how it should be a central part of what happens when we gather together as a community of faith.

And I repented because I've not led us to celebrate the Lord's Supper regularly like we need to do. And we see what we are celebrating the Lord's Supper together today. This is one of the most important things we do as a community of faith together.

So as elders, we said, this needs to be primary. So you see, we will regularly participate in communion as we solemnly and joyfully. This is what the Lord's Supper is about. Remember the past work of Christ on the cross, celebrate the present work of Christ, the Father's right hand, and anticipate the future work of Christ in his return for his bride.

A Community Centered on God

When you look at that picture right there, hopefully you see nothing new. Again, an expression of who we already are. But the constant theme I hope is evident in every single one of those phrases is that we are a community of faith that is centered on God.

And this is huge. Because we live in a church culture where there are strong temptations at every turn to be man-centered, to design church to revolve around men and men's preferences and men's desires, men's tastes, men's opinions.

We have talked about this. If you were to ask the average Christian sitting in a pew or seat in a church building this morning to sum up the message of Christianity, you would most likely hear something along the lines of, the message of Christianity is that God loves me or God loves me enough to send his son Jesus to die for me.

And what we have seen is that that is not biblical Christianity. That's not the essence of Christianity. If God loves me is the essence of Christianity, then who is the object of Christianity? God loves me.

Therefore, Christianity is about me and church is about me and my preferences and my likes in music and my tastes in this or that area and my life is about me and where I want to live and what I want to do and my dreams and my plans and my ambitions and that's not Christianity.

Christianity does not say God loves me, put a period on it, go home. Biblical Christianity said God loves me so that his glory and his majesty and his greatness might remain known in all nations. He is the object of Christianity and everything centers around him.

So that begs the question, how do we do community with one another? How do we love one another and yet be centered on God instead of each other? How do you do that? How do you love one another to the glory of God?

How do you guard against loving one another and seeing each other as the end, ultimate end of that love? How do you love one another for God's sake? And that's where we come to the non-negotiable word of God and the reason why we have the word.

The Word of God as the Foundation of Christian Community

God has given us his word at the foundation of our community to fix our eyes constantly on the glory of God. That's one of the primary reasons we have the word and there's no question. And the more I go to different places, the more I am convinced that we have diluted and minimized and marginalized the word of God in the community of faith called the church in our culture.

And we need to realize that if the word of God is not at the center of Christian community, then you no longer have Christian community. If the word of God is marginalized, then you have undercut the very foundation for the community you have.

And you're just a crowd that gathers together. And you might even be a successful church in our culture, but you're not a Christian community. You're not a local church according to what scripture defines as the community of faith because the word of God is central in the community of faith and that's what I want us to look at this morning.

We're going to come here to 2 Timothy chapter three, verse 10, it is one of the most, if not the most clear descriptions of the importance of God's word amidst the community of faith for every facet of our faith.

And so I want us to read what Paul writes to Timothy. Paul is nearing the very end of his life. These are like his parting words. What's most important to say to Timothy, his friend who he has mentored, his brother in ministry?

What's most important for him to say? Listen to what he says, 2 Timothy three, verse 10. You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecution, sufferings.

What kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra? The persecutions I endured, yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ, you just will be persecuted.

While evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it.

How from infancy you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus who will judge the living and the dead and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge. Preach the word. Be prepared in season and out of season.

Correct, rebuke, and encourage with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.

They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations. Endure hardship. Do the work of an evangelist. Discharge all the duties of your ministry.

For I am already being poured out like a drink offering. The time has come for my departure. I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Now there is in store for me the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day.

And not only to me, but also to all who have longed for his appearing. Father, we pray that amidst a day where there is constant pull toward newer, trendier, more creative, more innovative means of growing, building your church, we pray that you would mold us into a community of faith that forsakes all of those things in order to trust in your word alone.

We pray, God, that you would teach us the importance and the beauty and the glory of your word in the community of faith. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. This is a stout passage of scripture. And for the sake of time, we are not gonna be able, unfortunately, to dive into every single word and every single phrase that is contained here.

What I did this week is I took those first three paragraphs in that church covenant and said, okay, is there a passage of scripture that is referenced here that really summarizes the basis for all of the others?

And 2 Timothy chapter three and four, which is the end of the second paragraph, is that text. And so what I want us to do is I want us to take this text and I want us to put it alongside a variety of those other texts that are in, mentioned in that church covenant.

I want us to see the importance of the word of God in the community of faith. I want us to see why the word is so important for defining who we are. This whole passage revolves around the word. Paul says, Timothy, the only reason you are who you are is because of the word, because the word was poured into you.

So stay in it, continue in it, remain in it. And in the church, keep it central. Preach the word. That's one command that supersedes and precedes and supersedes all these other commands. It's just a litany of commands there in chapter four and it's all starting with preach the word.

Keep the word central because there will be all kinds of temptations to minimize the word. So why, why must the word be central in the community of faith? First, because we are a community formed by God's word.

Salvation and Sanctification Through the Word

We're formed by God's word. And what do you mean? What do you mean the word of God forms the people of God, the community of faith? Well, what does the word do? Think about it, what Paul has expressed here.

First of all, we are saved by the word. We're saved by the word. Now I wanna be careful with the language here because the reality is we are saved by Christ who is the living incarnate word of God. But the revelation of Christ that we have, who he is and what he has done is the word of God.

It's the word that opens our eyes to see who Christ is. And it's the word that describes how we are saved. We don't have to come up with means or methods of salvation, a plan of salvation, a path to salvation.

The word describes how we're saved. That's the first sentence there in that part of the covenant we're looking at today, having been baptized, sorry, having been brought by divine grace to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and surrender our lives to him.

That's how the word describes salvation. It's what the Bible describes as trusting Christ for salvation. Repent, believe, surrender, give up everything you have, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow him.

This is what it means to be a follower of Christ, to come to Christ. Now, we have come up with all kinds of substitute phrases in our day in order to try to reach as many people as possible. We have taken those phrases, put them out the door and said, no, just accept Christ or invite Christ into your life or pray this prayer and you will be saved.

None of those phrases are in scripture, none of them. In our efforts to reach as many people as possible with the word of Christ, we have thrown out the word of Christ and put a superstitious prayer in front of people to pray.

Repent, believe, give up everything you have, see him not as a savior who's begging for you to accept him but as a Lord and God who is infinitely worthy of all of your surrender. And trust in him, he will forgive you of your sins and reconcile you to God, clothe you in his righteousness.

These are biblical terms. We are saved according to the word. The last thing we want to do is dilute the gospel in order to reach more people with the gospel and in the process, lead people to follow our path to salvation, our words and end up thinking they're saved when according to scripture, they are not.

Saved, maybe it's better to put by Christ according to the word. It's fundamental for our salvation. It's what Paul said, verse 14 and 15. Continue what you've learned and have become convinced of because you know those from whom you learned it and how from infancy, you have known the holy scriptures which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.

Scriptures make you wise for salvation through faith. We're saved by faith. Faith in what? In the word, Romans chapter 10, verse 17. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the what? By the word of God.

We're saved by the word. Not just saved by the word though, not just justified before God, not just born again according to the new and living word. We are sanctified through the word. Second, Paul says scriptures are able to make you wise for salvation and then he continues, verse 16.

All scripture is God-breathed. God-breathed, what an incredible picture and it's useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Paul says, Timothy, when you are saved, when you're saved, you don't graduate from the word and move on to something else.

The word is where you live and continue in. Christian brother or sister in this room, when we are saved, we do not graduate one day to the latest hit in the Christian bookstore to now help us grow in our relationship with Christ.

We don't need it. We don't need any of those books. Now follow with me here. I'm not saying that every book in the Christian bookstores that surround us is bad. In fact, there are some good, some very helpful books and resources.

But the reality is, there is only one book that God has promised to bless, to sanctify you, make you holy, grow you into the image of Christ and that is this book. There is not one book, the best one in the Christian bookstore is not able to sanctify you.

God has not promised to bless it for your sanctification. This whole song, I wanna be holy, if that is true, there's one means God has promised to bless to make that happen. And if all of those books and resources were gone, we would still have everything we need to grow into the image of Christ.

The Word Forms Christlike Character

Now, to this point, some people think, okay, I hear what you're saying, but let's be honest, there are some things I'm facing in my Christian life today in the 21st century that this book doesn't address.

There's some questions I have that this book doesn't answer and there's some situations in my life that I'm facing as a Christian that this book doesn't deal with. We ask those questions, the response is, you're right.

There are tons of questions we have that this book does not answer and there are a variety of situations that every single one of us faces in our Christian life that are not addressed in Scripture. Now, some of you are thinking at this point, I'm a little heretical, but just follow with me for a second.

I mean, there's all kinds of things that this book does not address. Silly things like UFOs and dinosaurs. When your child asks you about UFOs and dinosaurs, what verse do you take them to? Okay, there's some stretches, okay.

There's some stretches. There's not a book, though, that says, some of you are wondering about dinosaurs, UFOs. Practical things like how to raise teenagers. You don't find a book, a verse, that even talks about teenagers.

No such thing, in a sense. Not like we have in our culture today. How to manage your money. What verse talks about what to do with Social Security and 401Ks and stocks? How to walk through divorce recovery?

How to live as a single parent? How to walk through cancer? Now, certainly, there are truths. Certainly, there are principles in God's word that help inform our understanding of these things, but here's the deal.

The Bible was never intended to answer all the questions we might have, or address every specific situation we may face in life. You say, what was it intended for, then? It was intended, it is intended, to conform each of us into the image of Christ.

That's the purpose of the Bible. To mold us more and more and more into the image of Christ. That's the whole purpose. I can show you that from cover to cover in Scripture. It's exactly what Paul's saying here.

Literally, it's all over. This is the purpose God has given us. You wonder, why Leviticus? Why some of these things? It's a picture of how God is conforming, redeeming. Us into his image. Conforming us into the image of Christ.

Now, here's what we do today. We've got all these questions. How do you do this, and how do you do this, and how do you do this? And we want those questions answered. If we're gonna get them answered, we need to get them answered in the church, right?

So, preachers need to answer all those questions. And so, you have sermon series on how to manage your money. How to walk through this or that in parenting, or divorce recovery, or this or that. Here's helpful tips.

Well, the problem is, in order for a preacher to address those things, since they're not specifically addressed in the Bible, now we need to begin to minimize the Bible, and now we need to bring in the stuff from the Christian bookstores.

And all of a sudden, sermons become very light on Bible. You ever heard a light on Bible sermon? Maybe, maybe the preacher uses the Bible, maybe like a springboard, or a diving board, and stands up, maybe reads a verse or a text, and then jumps off, never to return again.

Or maybe, maybe the word to use, keep using the analogy, is more like pool furniture. And the preacher jumps into the word, and swims around, and all the great ideas of the day. Every once in a while, makes a reference over here, to this scripture over there, to that scripture.

But we're really soaking in his good ideas. The other option is for the Bible, the word of God, to be the pool itself, that we swim in, and we saturate ourselves in, and we soak in, and everything else is supplemental.

Now some might say, well at least in the first two options, I get some practical advice. In the last option there, maybe I soak in Leviticus, but how's that gonna help me, as a parent of teenagers this week?

It's going to help you more than you will ever realize. Because here's the deal, Leviticus has something, all that other stuff doesn't have. It has the promise, that it is going to be used, by the Holy Spirit of God, to conform you into the image of Christ.

The Word as the Source of Spiritual Transformation

Now here's where I find myself, as preacher in this community of faith. I've got some options. I could go those first couple routes, but let's be honest, do you really think I'm that good? Like are you really looking to me, parents, for how to raise your teenagers, when I am struggling with a 16 month old, and a three year old?

Did you really come this morning, looking for financial advice from me? How to walk through divorce recovery, a single parent, or this or that? I'm certainly not the expert on all of those things, and even if I was, even if I was Dr. Dave, in every single one of those areas, I still have something infinitely better to offer you.

The Word of God, that is guaranteed, when it is studied, and soaked in, and swam in, saturated in, guaranteed to conform your life into the image of Christ, to bring you intimately in touch, with the very Holy Spirit of God that is living in you.

By the way, the Holy Spirit of God, that will be right there with you, in every parenting decision you make. And right there with you, in divorce recovery, and living as a single parent, and trying to figure out what to do with your finances, and this or that.

This is good, it's what we need. Think about it this way, you've got in your notes there, kind of the bullseye, the concentric circles. Think about it this way, and this will be kind of tough to write in, because you might not write small enough, but just do some notes, or lines out of the side, or whatever, in the middle circle.

Write this, write the character of Christ. I want us to think about how the Word of God sanctifies us, from the inside out. Follow with me here. Character of Christ. When we are saved, when we are followers of Christ, Christ lives in us.

The very character of Christ dwells in us. This is the purpose of God's Word. We just talked about it. To mold us more, and more, and more, into the image of Christ. Every word, every page in scripture.

Leviticus, Jeremiah, Song of Solomon, Second Timothy, all of it is intended to conform us more, and more, into the image of Christ. God has breathed it into life for that purpose. To teach, correct, rebuke, train us in righteousness.

So, as the Word feeds us, the character of Christ in us grows. Second circle. Going from the inside out. Second circle. Write conscience. Conscience is how we think. What we believe. What we feel. The reality is, our conscience as Christians is affected by the character of Christ in us, right?

Christ changes the way we think. Christ changes the way we feel. Not instantly, not everything. It's a process. It's what sanctification is about. Where we begin to think Christianly. Where we begin to feel what Christ feels.

And we begin to desire what Christ desires. We begin to want what Christ wants. We begin to see all the signs of life. All the stuff this world has to offer us does not satisfy anywhere close to what Christ does.

And our desires begin to change. And we see, we don't need that stuff anymore. I want Christ. Christ, the character of Christ in us affecting our conscience. The way we think, feel, believe. Third circle.

Moving out. Third circle. Conduct. Our behavior. The way we act. What we do. Now, the reality is, what we do, our conduct, is based on how we feel and what we think. What we believe. Don't miss this. We always live out what we believe.

We always live out what we believe. Our lives are a reflection of our beliefs. Even when we sin, it's not a conduct problem as much as it is a belief problem. When we sin, we say, I don't believe God on this.

I believe I've got a better route to take. It's the whole picture in Romans chapter one. Distorted worship leads to distorted desire. Distorted thought leads to distorted action. It doesn't just happen in a vacuum.

There's a basis upon which we act. This is what we talked about in the radical series, isn't it? It's where we're confronted with the reality that with all of our big houses and big cars and lifestyles that are filled with stuff, we're showing that we believe our comforts are more important than the poor in the world.

It's a reality. It's a humbling reality, but it's the reality. We had a belief problem. Do we really believe the gospel is what we asked each other? Do we really believe what this word says? Because if we do, then our lives would look so radically different.

Conduct, fruit of character, prideness, effect in the way we think, feel, believe, conscious. Last circle on the outside, right? Church, church. As we behave in the culture around us, people see the conduct of us, and it reflects on the church.

The church intended to be a reflection of the character of Christ, so as Christ transforms us individually from the inside out, he's also transforming the community of faith from the inside out. The world will judge the picture of Christ based on the conduct of Christians that make up the church.

They see that. When you look at that, you think about the push for us to say, when we gather together, we need some practical stuff to do. We got some conduct things. How do I raise teenagers? How do I walk through this?

How do I do this? How do I do this? The answer we've come up with is, well, let's talk about things to do. Do this. Here's 10 steps to do this. Here's five tips for this. Do these things. The only problem is, even if those are good things to do, don't miss this.

Even if that's great advice, the reality is, if it's Christian advice, if it's a Christian way to live, here's how to live out the Christian life, then the reality is, every attempt to try to do that will fail miserably.

Ever feel like that? Ever feel like Christianity, maybe church is about, you just get a list of things to do every single week, and you try to do it for maybe a week or two, but you end up falling back, and you can't do it, and that's the reality.

It's the whole point of Christianity. You can't do it. You can't live out the Christian life. You need Christ. The whole thing is designed so that Christ does it in you, right? And so we find ourselves, at best, legalistic Pharisees who are trying to follow all the commands, but what we're missing is the nourishment we need of Christ in us from his word in order to enable us to live out all those commands.

Only Christ can do these things in us, and if we're not being fed at the core of who we are with the means by which God is transforming us in his image, then we are hopeless, hopeless to live out the Christian life, and now the world sees the church as a bunch of people who are following a bunch of rules or the tips of a preacher, and they say, what difference does it make?

The Word and Persevering Faith in Students and Families

Think about it. Case in point, we've prayed this morning for high school, college students. I was speaking at a conference this last week with college ministers and college leaders from around the country, and it is alarming.

It is absolutely alarming to see the statistics of supposedly Christian church college students who, within the first semester in college, if not the second, will fall completely away from their faith.

The overwhelming majority will. I pray those statistics are not true in this community of faith, but the reality is, according to statistics countrywide, the majority of students who are standing up here graduating from high school this time next year will not still be following Christ.

Why is that? Could it be, could it be that we have created a whole system of Christianity in which they've grown up, in which they've been told, do this, do this, do this, do this, do this. This is what a Christian does.

But along the way, we fail to feed them at the core of who they are, with the character of Christ in them, so that their first semester in college, as soon as they get in front of an atheistic college professor, they have no idea how to think Christianly, and as a result, they cave in immediately.

For the first time, they see a pleasure in this world on that college campus. They've not learned how to feel what Christ feels and desire what Christ desires, and as a result, what happens is in one semester, they're exposed for what is ultimately a hollow Christianity that we have given to them, because we've not given them the one thing they need to change the way they think and feel and believe and empower them to walk on that campus and live in victory, and to see all those pleasures on that campus and say, I don't want any of that, I've got Christ, he satisfies, he's gloriously satisfying, why would I want that?

This atheistic professor has no clue what he's saying, so I'm gonna pray for him, and I'm gonna pray that he sees the truth that I know that's hidden in my heart. Only the word can do that, only God's word can do that.

High school students now struggling with impurity in a day where they are bombarded with so many temptations. Children, students are bombarded with so many temptations today. How do we help them face those temptations?

Aim at the conduct here and say, well, you need to be pure, so do it, be pure. Do these things and you'll be pure. That'll only go so far, but what happens when the character of Christ is being fed in them and they begin to think like Christ and feel what Christ feels, and they realize this boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't have anything, anything to offer that Christ is not filling in them?

The word does that, it empowers them. Adults all across this faith, men in this faith family, men in our culture and in the church, so few men living as spiritual leaders in their homes. Astounding statistics of men who would far rather be looking at an image on the internet than leading their children to study the word of God.

How do you change that? Stop looking at the internet, don't do it anymore. That'll go so far, but what happens when men in this faith family begin to really feed on the word of Christ, and it begins to fuel the character of Christ in them, and they begin to think what Christ thinks and feel what Christ feels, and they actually begin, men begin to want Christ, they want Christ more than they want football.

They care about Christ more than they care about what 18-year-old is signing with their team to play for their school. They care about Christ, and they want their kids to know Christ more than they want their kids to play games this world has to offer.

They want their kids to know Christ, and now men are being raised up in a faith family who are strong husbands and fathers and who lay down their lives for their wives, just like Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.