Loving Your Wife Well By Matt JacobsonSampl

Day One

A Breathtaking Gift

Scripture: Ephesians 5:28

When Lisa and I got married, I promised that I would cherish her, my bride, this breathtaking gift from God, every day of my life. 

How great it would be to report that I have loved Lisa perfectly. I cannot. I’ve caused her tears, been unloving, insensitive, and downright sinful at times. But I can report to you that Lisa has been and is a cherished woman. 

Lisa knows that loving her is serious business with me. She is my priority because Jesus Christ made her my priority—and He expects to be obeyed. He wants me to love her as He loves His Bride. 

Jesus is the example for every Christian man to know how to truly cherish his wife. 

Wait a minute, Jesus isn’t married! 

But He is (or soon will be). His Bride is the Church. 

And as we read in Ephesians 5, Christian men are instructed to love their wives as Jesus loves His.

You see, if you claim to be a Christian man, being the husband of a cherished woman just isn’t optional. It is the call of God on your life—to preach the gospel with the power of your love for your wife—an expression to the world of how Jesus Christ loves His Bride, the Church. If I don’t cherish Lisa, I’m walking in sin and I must change. The same is true of every married Christian man—he is sinning if he is not cherishing his wife. 

The best, richest marriages are enjoyed by couples of every age group who know a simple yet all too often forgotten truth. Great marriages are the result of husbands and wives making a lot of everyday choices that say “I love you” rather than “I love me.” 

If you want an epic marriage worthy of the best poet, country-western singer, playwright, novelist, or the Song of Solomon, then learn how to say “I love you” through all the normal days of marriage you are given. 

Scripture says that when you love your wife, you are loving yourself. Because according to God, the two of you are one single entity. And a truly cherished wife takes great pleasure in returning that love with interest. 

What do you have to lose? 

When have you seen your wife respond positively to your affirmation of her—maybe even returning that love “with interest”?