Husbands, Love Your Wives

HUSBANDS, LOVE YOUR WIVES

Study Text: Ephesians 5: 22 – 30

Introduction:

- Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. We ought to love our wives as part of ourselves. Every time you hurt your wife, you hurt yourself.

- We need to be devoted to our wives and provide for them emotionally, spiritually, and physically. This means "to provide for the development of and to attain the health of."

- The command is not hard to understand, but it's tremendously hard to do. It is to love your wife unconditionally. Our purpose in loving our wives is to help them become all God designed them to be.

- We shall discuss the topic under three sub-headings:

1. The Meaning of Loving your Wife

2. The Manner of Loving your Wife

3. The Measure for Loving your wife

1. The Meaning of Loving your Wife

- There is no relationship, spoken of in the entire Bible, as close as the relationship of a husband and wife.

- In Ephesians Chapter 5, the Bible says that the husband is the head of the wife, in what way? Not like the head of an organization. Do you know the difference between the head of an organization and the head of a physical body?

- The head of an organization may not have any interest in the members in that organization. But the head in your physical body has a very living interest in every part of the physical body, every member. That is the will of God.

- So the relationship between a husband and wife is pictured, as close and as intimate as the relationship between your physical head and the rest of your body. Can you think of a closer relationship than that?

- That is the closest, most intimate of relationships one can think of. Even a father and son are not described in the Bible as head and body. Mother and daughter are not described like that. Parents and children are not described like that. It is only a husband and wife. That is the closeness with which God wants a husband and wife to live.

- In other words, you should love one another more than you love every other relationship. If you love your children more, you are destroying your marriage. If you love your parents more, you are destroying your marriage. If you love your job more, you are destroying your marriage.

- Even if you love your ministry more, you are destroying your marriage. When the Bible says you must put the Lord first, it does not mean you must put the Lord's work first.

- No, there is a difference between the Lord and the Lord's work. Your relationship with the Lord is different from your service to the Lord. The latter is only meaningful when the former is acceptable.

- Many people don't understand that. There are people who ignore their wives, saying, 'I am doing the Lord's work.' What's the result? Their marriage gets destroyed, and finally their so-called Lord's work also gets destroyed.

2. The Manner of Loving your Wife

i. Be a leader and not a ruler.

- The Scriptures provide a clear organizational structure for a marriage. 1 Corinthians 11:3

- God placed ultimate responsibility with respect to the household on the shoulders of the husband.

- The Lord has assigned the wife the duty of obeying her husband yet, this obedience must be a voluntary submission on her part, and that only to her own husband, not to every man.

- "Head" does not mean male dominance, where a man lords it over a woman and demands her total obedience to his every wish and command. God never viewed women as second-class citizens. His Word clearly states that we are all equally His children and are of equal value and worth before Him. (Galatians 3:28).

- The teaching of the New Testament clearly shows that women are to be respected, revered, and treated as equals with men. Unfortunately, many husbands have not gotten the message. They degrade their wives by neglect or with insensitive and abusive treatment.

- Are you a leader? God has placed the husband in the position of responsibility. You are not demanding this position; on the contrary, God placed you there. You may not lead her perfectly, but you must care for your wife and family by serving them with perseverance.

ii. Love your wife unconditionally.

- Your unconditional acceptance of your wife is not based upon her performance, but on her worth as God's gift to you.

- One of the missing ingredients in male leadership in homes is sacrificial action. When was the last time you gave up something for your wife, something you genuinely valued?