Yesterday we looked in Ephesians 5 at what it looks like for a wife to lovingly submit to her husband. Paul then tells us what it looks like for husbands:
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
A man who is following Christ is willing to pay any price for what is best for his wife - not to please her, but to please God. Since what pleases God most is for us to trust Christ to come in and make our lives what He envisions them to be, to put our pieces of the puzzle where he wants them to be, to cleanse us and make us beautiful, our goal as husbands is to develop that trust in our wives. They need to know that we do indeed love them so much that they are willing to trust us - and more importantly, trust God - that they will let Him do the makeover they need. What Paul is trying to do is to show how this relationship is just a smaller version of the big beautiful masterpiece He is creating in Christ. We can either be contributing to its beauty, or detracting from it. Husbands: do your part to make your wives beautiful for God.
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