Husbands, Love Your Wife

In the bible when Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus, he had these words to say to the married men there:


"Husbands, you must love your wives so deeply, purely, & sacrificially that we can understand it only when we compare it to the love Jesus has for His bride, the church. We know He gave Himself up completely to make her His own, washing her clean of all her impurity with water & the powerful presence of His word. He has given Himself so that He can present the church as His radiant bride, unstained, unwrinkled, & unblemished—completely free from all impurity—holy and innocent before Him. So husbands should care for their wives as if their lives depended on it, the same way they care for their own bodies. As you love her, you ultimately are loving part of yourself (remember, you are one flesh). No one really hates his own body; he takes care to feed & love it, just as the Anointed takes care of His church, because we are living members of His body. “And this is the reason a man leaves his father and his mother and is united with his wife; the two come together as one flesh.” There is a great mystery reflected in this Scripture, and I say that it has to do with the marriage of Jesus & the church. Nevertheless, each husband is to love and protect his own wife as if she were his very heart, and each wife is to respect her own husband."
I love Paul's words here because he's helping men to understand just how important it is to love their wives. He is telling men to think about their wives as much as they think about themselves. He tells men that their commitment of love & marriage should be deeper for their wives than even taking care of themselves. The way Paul compares marriage & church is meaningful because he's saying when two people become one, love reaches the deepest level because it's sacrificial & unconditional.

So for the men this week that may be reading this, a few questions for you. Are you loving your wife as if your life depended on your love for her? Are you loving your wife as much as you worry about having a great body? Are you putting in the same kind of time with your wife that you put in at the gym working out? Are you sacrificing your needs & desires for her needs & desires?

You may be willing to take a bullet for your wife but are you willing to do the dishes, laundry, watch the kids, cook dinner or other things that your wife may be doing? This is what sacrificial love is, the little daily things that you could do to make her life better.

Most of all what I love about this passage is that Paul points out that two people become one & it's a great mystery. Two become one - this means that both are equal in the relationship. The husband is not to rule over his wife nor is the wife to rule over her husband. The two become one. This is what makes a great marriage. When two people can love, honor, & respect each other for who they are without being oppressive towards their spouse. This is marriage at it's finest and maybe one of the reasons that couples start to look like each other as they get older. They've literally & physically become one.

It seems to me that the greatest accomplishment a man can have is to have a partner to go through life with. To be able to serve that partner faithfully for years and grow closer than either could have imagined was possible.

So men, this week love your wife like never before. Blow her mind by doing things for her that she normally does. Treat her like the queen you believed she was when you first met. Be creative or better yet, just be there for her however she needs you.