Walking In Loveنموونە

Love Her

One of the longest and most important passages on marriage in the New Testament is found in Ephesians 5. The most striking note in this passage is the emphatic call to husbands to love their wives.

Three times the call goes out:

Love her. (Eph. 5:25)

Love her. (Eph. 5:28)

Love her. (Eph. 5:33)

Clearly, that husbands love their wives matters to God a great deal. Every husband will be accountable to God for loving his wife. In the eyes of God, it is a tragedy when a woman is married to a man and is unloved by him. It should not be. When she was a young girl, just about every wife dreamed of a knight sweeping her off her feet and loving her devotedly for the rest of her life.

When a woman is married and yet largely unloved and lonely, it is a sad and serious thing in the eyes of our God.

But why doesn’t God tell wives to love their husbands? Shouldn’t wives love their husbands also? Of course, they should, but I suspect that most wives will naturally love their husbands.

Generally, a wife will naturally and enthusiastically love her husband unless she has felt so unloved by him for so long that the love inside her has withered away and died.

When God calls a husband to love his wife, he provides a model in the way Christ loved his bride, the church. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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” (Eph. 5:25-27).

Two things should be noted about a husband’s love:

1. If Christ is the example for husbands (and he is), then a husband’s love is a sacrificial love. A husband must be willing to die for and live for his wife. He sacrifices for her. He puts her feelings, her needs, and her interests ahead of his own. This sort of love is as powerful as it is rare. Every wife will respond to it.

2. Just as Christ’s love results in a radiant church, so a husband’s love leads to a radiant bride. When a wife feels deeply loved by her husband, she will flourish and thrive. She will not be crushed or stifled, held back or frustrated. She will come alive and become the woman God designed her to be. To a large extent, you can look at the face of a wife and tell how her husband loves her. Is she radiant? Does she thrive? Is she more secure and confident because of her husband’s love? Have her gifts flourished? Is she closer to God? Is she more the person God created her to be?

Husbands, God has placed within you all that you need to love your wives. Love your wife with everything you’ve got. Love her the way Christ loved us: sacrificially, selflessly, fervently, and devotedly.

You will not regret it.