LOVING YOUR WIFE 7: LIKE CHRIST
(Message by Tanny Keng)
1. Loving Your Wife
a) The Bible commands men to love their wives as Christ loves the church. This is a very difficult command to obey because Christ gave His own life for the church. In fact He died for it. The church is spoken of as the Bride of Christ and Jesus is the Bridegroom and the two are engaged to one another. The marriage feast of the Lamb of God will take place after the consummation of the marriage at His return. The kind of love that Christ has for the church is the divine kind of love; a self sacrificing and unconditional love that humans can only hope to mimic.
b) So how are husbands to love their wives the way that Jesus loves the church? Instead of consulting a Marriage Counselor or reading a book about marriage, we will go to the soundest of all logic. There is no better marriage advice for husbands given anywhere, by anyone, at anytime, than in the Bible. There is wisdom for husbands in how they should love their wives that is unlike any advice you will find in the world; the Holy Bible.
c) Let God speak to us on how a husband should love his wife.
1. Loving Your Wifea) The Bible commands men to love their wives as Christ loves the church. This is a very difficult command to obey because Christ gave His own life for the church. In fact He died for it. The church is spoken of as the Bride of Christ and Jesus is the Bridegroom and the two are engaged to one another. The marriage feast of the Lamb of God will take place after the consummation of the marriage at His return. The kind of love that Christ has for the church is the divine kind of love; a self sacrificing and unconditional love that humans can only hope to mimic.
b) So how are husbands to love their wives the way that Jesus loves the church? Instead of consulting a Marriage Counselor or reading a book about marriage, we will go to the soundest of all logic. There is no better marriage advice for husbands given anywhere, by anyone, at anytime, than in the Bible. There is wisdom for husbands in how they should love their wives that is unlike any advice you will find in the world; the Holy Bible.
c) Let God speak to us on how a husband should love his wife.
2. Loving Your Wife Like Christ
a) Men are the head of the household in the biblical model, but Christ is the head of man. Men are commanded to be the spiritual leaders- but not the spiritual dominators. Few women that we have heard of where their husband loved them in a supernatural way, as Christ loved the church, have ever had any problem with submitting to them.
b) Submission is easier when the one to whom they submit loves them enough to sacrifice his own life for them – to the point of dying for them. Marriage has been described as a miracle in itself because it takes two opposites with great difference and these two polar opposites must live together, co-exist together, and cooperate as one.
c) Ephesians 5:25-28 shows what type of love husbands ought to show their wives; “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.”
d) This is something that husbands can not do in their own strength. It takes a supernatural empowerment by the Holy Spirit. It is not within human strength, power or capacity to love someone like Christ loves the church. In the foot washing, Jesus Christ washes the feet of the disciples. Even though He is their Lord and Master, and very God, He was a servant. He came to serve and not to be served. He gave His life as a ransom for His bride (the church). Husbands: good luck with this. You will need God’s help in this but we are told to love our wives just as Christ loves the church.
e) Christ was also forgiving. Even while they were crucifying Him, He told God the Father to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing. Husbands must be forgiving. They can not hold onto past grievances like stock and bonds only to cash them in some day. To bring up old issues is to not be loving their wives as Christ loved and does love the church. He gave Himself up for us and so husbands must give up themselves – including their own interests – for their wives.
f) Husbands, love your wives like Christ loves you. We always get into trouble when we say “you always and you never.” These types of sentences are condemning and judgmental. Absolutes like these make forgiveness impossible and tell them that things can never change. Christ loved us while we were still enemies. So husband must love their wives…like their own bodies, like a sacrificial lamb that Christ was, and like the mercy and grace we received. There are fewer things a husband can do where a wife would not happily submit to their authority. That is truly how to love your wife.
The End ...
a) Men are the head of the household in the biblical model, but Christ is the head of man. Men are commanded to be the spiritual leaders- but not the spiritual dominators. Few women that we have heard of where their husband loved them in a supernatural way, as Christ loved the church, have ever had any problem with submitting to them.
b) Submission is easier when the one to whom they submit loves them enough to sacrifice his own life for them – to the point of dying for them. Marriage has been described as a miracle in itself because it takes two opposites with great difference and these two polar opposites must live together, co-exist together, and cooperate as one.
c) Ephesians 5:25-28 shows what type of love husbands ought to show their wives; “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.”
d) This is something that husbands can not do in their own strength. It takes a supernatural empowerment by the Holy Spirit. It is not within human strength, power or capacity to love someone like Christ loves the church. In the foot washing, Jesus Christ washes the feet of the disciples. Even though He is their Lord and Master, and very God, He was a servant. He came to serve and not to be served. He gave His life as a ransom for His bride (the church). Husbands: good luck with this. You will need God’s help in this but we are told to love our wives just as Christ loves the church.
e) Christ was also forgiving. Even while they were crucifying Him, He told God the Father to forgive them because they didn’t know what they were doing. Husbands must be forgiving. They can not hold onto past grievances like stock and bonds only to cash them in some day. To bring up old issues is to not be loving their wives as Christ loved and does love the church. He gave Himself up for us and so husbands must give up themselves – including their own interests – for their wives.
f) Husbands, love your wives like Christ loves you. We always get into trouble when we say “you always and you never.” These types of sentences are condemning and judgmental. Absolutes like these make forgiveness impossible and tell them that things can never change. Christ loved us while we were still enemies. So husband must love their wives…like their own bodies, like a sacrificial lamb that Christ was, and like the mercy and grace we received. There are fewer things a husband can do where a wife would not happily submit to their authority. That is truly how to love your wife.
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