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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.
However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself.
Ephesians 5:25-30, 33a
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
In first century AD society, husbands weren’t really required to show any affection or care for their wives or children. They were fully in charge within the household, the king of the residence and their spouses and kids were expected to worship the king. This meant giving the king all the attention and catering to his needs.
This is why the words we found the Apostle Paul sharing with the Ephesian believers, words requiring wives to submit to their husbands, wasn’t a radical departure to what was already happening. In most instances, the wives didn’t have any choice but to submit because their marital partner demanded it.
With this, we see Paul shift his attention to the husbands as he starts to close out Ephesians, chapter 5, and his commands were intended to create a drastic change within the marriage relationship, a change grounded in love.
Note here that the scriptures don’t just order husbands to love their wives but clearly defines what that love needs to look like.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
Left to their own devices, a husband could easily choose to love at a minimum to meet the marital intimacy requirement but God’s word doesn’t allow for that possibility for husbands are to love their wives “just as Christ loved the church”.
Think about that for a moment.
This is no ordinary, run of the mill love. Rather, this is love in its purest form, a love that is willing to die for the person being loved. Christ gave Himself up for the church in order to make it holy, which is just another way to say the church was set apart, washed clean to appear blameless before God when His judgment comes.
Jesus submitted in order to save and as we saw in verse 21, all Christians are expected to submit to one another out of reverence for their Savior.
Husbands are to take this submission up a notch and love their wife as Christ loves. Go to Paul’s love chapter in 1 Corinthians (verses 4 through 8), chapter 13, and we see this kind of love, the love of Christ, isn’t envious or boastful or proud. It doesn’t dishonor others or keep records of wrongs or delight in evil. Nor is it self-seeking or easily angered.
The love of Christ isn’t any of these things but it is patient and kind and rejoices in the truth. It always protects and trusts and hopes and perseveres. And ultimately, the love of Jesus never fails.
Did I mention how this was a call for major change in the ways that husbands functioned in marriage in first century AD?
Frankly, it is a major change in the way many husbands function within their marriages today.
Wives are to submit to their husbands and in turn, husbands are to love their wives as the greatest lover of all times loved, the perfect Lover of mankind named Jesus.
Marriages that function in accordance with the scriptures won’t just survive, they'll thrive because that’s the will of our Lord for every special couple He brings together in matrimony.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com
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