The Incredible Privilege of LOVING a Woman
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her… (Ephesians 5:25 – NASB)
The implications of claiming to be a follower of Christ are numberless, not least of which has to do with the marriage bond. A man who does on love his wife cannot, at the same time, claim to be a follower of Christ.
How much we love our wives is measured, by how much we are loving our wives (see verses 26-32).
If we consider it a privilege to follow Christ, we should consider it an equal privilege to love our wives.
It is a privilege to love our wives SELFLESSLY
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church…
We are to love our wives just as (in the same manner as) Christ loved the church. How was that? He loved the church selflessly, and deliberately:
No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.” (John 10:18 – NASB)
Loving our wives is not always based on feelings of love, but on a deliberate choice to override our own selfish desires in order to bestow a blessing on the one God has given us as our life partner.
It is a privilege to love our wives SACRIFICIALLY
…and gave Himself up for her…
In other words, Christ gave up His life for the church; He died for her. To love our wives as Christ loved the church means we have to consider them more valuable than our own life be willing to die for them. This kind of spouse-loving is only possible if, in following Christ we have already surrendered our lives to Him; once we have, sacrificing our lives for our wives will result as a natural (or supernatural) consequence.
It is a privilege to love our wives TENDERLY
So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself… (Ephesians 5:28 – NASB)
Consider how we treat our own bodies. It is only a mentally ill individual who would deliberately harm his own body. Men who harm their wives, either in word or deed, are spiritually and emotionally sick.
Tenderness toward our wives, no matter what conflict and struggles they are passing through, will reap rich rewards, and is the only reasonable behaviour in light of the forgiveness and mercy Christ has given us.
Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32 – NASB)
It is a privilege to love our wives INTIMATELY
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. (Ephesians 5:31 – NASB)
Intimacy in marriage is according to God’s plan, but it is not primarily for the husband’s satisfaction. A real man will attend to his wife’s needs first, and then to his own. A large measure of his own satisfaction will be derived from knowing he has fulfilled his wife’s desires. There is a sad history of men failing in this area of the marriage bond – and out of it. A husband, however, who is a Christ follower will put his wife’s needs above his own.
Loving my wife
(© 17th September 2015 – by Christopher Shennan)
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her… (Ephesians 5:25 – NASB)
God gave me a woman to love as He
Has loved this poor, lost soul, of mine;
Sent her to me to nurture and care for –
With the gift of His love divine.
I am very conscious of the privilege,
He’s given in singling her out;
She is the one He has called me to love,
And that I don’t question about.
God wants me to love her more than myself,
In the way that He first loved me;
In the way that He was willing to die,
To deliver and set me free.
So, this is my calling; this is my quest:
To bestow all my love and care
On the woman God has given me –
And I tell you my friend – I dare.
Please visit My website: www.christophershennan.ca
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