Husbands, Love your Wives

Ephesians 5:25–33 NKJV

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own 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 the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

Paul told us that we must redeem the time because the day are evil. Which is not accomplished by doing as much as being. Namely being filled with the Holy Spirit. But this is passive as one does not fill oneself with the Holy Spirit. We must receive the Holy Spirit.

One of the greatest misunderstandings of God’s people is thinking that we can do something for God, or that we can give something to God. Grace flows one way from God to us. There is nothing we can give God, there is nothing we can do for God. But he does everything for us.

Psalm 50:9–15 NKJV

9 I will not take a bull from your house, Nor goats out of your folds. 10 For every beast of the forest is Mine, And the cattle on a thousand hills. 11 I know all the birds of the mountains, And the wild beasts of the field are Mine. 12 “If I were hungry, I would not tell you; For the world is Mine, and all its fullness. 13 Will I eat the flesh of bulls, Or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God thanksgiving, And pay your vows to the Most High. 15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

So to redeem the time is to be filled with the Holy Spirit

This results in speaking to one another in psalms, hymns spiritual songs, sing making melody in our heart to the Lord, and giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of Jesus Christ and submitting to one another in the fear of the Lord.

so this submitting to one another is expressed in various way with each other depending our our relationship.

How a wife submits to her husband is deferent to how a husband submits to his wife.

Yet Christ is our example in both cases.

Ephesians 5:22 NKJV

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

Ephesians 5:24 NKJV

24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Ephesians 5:25 NKJV

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,

Love Your Wife Just as Christ Loved the Church

How did Christ love the church? With the highest expression love.

John 15:13 NKJV

13 Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

So when is says...

He gave Himself for the Church

it refers to Christ giving His life on the cross for our redemption.

Ephesians 5:2 NKJV

2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.

Ephesians 1:7 NKJV

7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace

Christ redeemed His church through His own blood, giving His own life for our salvation.

This is the highest expression of love and this is the way in which Paul say husbands love your wives.

Now notice, the church did not deserve this sacrificial love. On the contrary, we had sinned, we were totally undeserving of the love of Christ.

Romans 5:6–8 NKJV

6 For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He dies for underserving sinners, not because of who we were but because of what He intended to make us.

There is a progression in this passage from past through to future.

Christ loved the Church, that is He loved the church before the church loved Him, before the church knew Him in fact as it tells us in

eph 1:4

Ephesians 1:4 NKJV

4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love,

So he had the end in mind from the beginning.

So He loved the church and gave Himself for her..

Ephesians 5:26–27 NKJV

26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

For the purpose that He might

Sanctify

Set her apart consecrate her

Cleanse

Purify, through justification, forgiveness of our sins cleaning us from sin.

1 John 1:9 NKJV

9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The end that Christ has in mind or His purpose in giving Himself is

Ephesians 5:27 NKJV

27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.

So husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church.

Just as Christ gave His life not because we deserved it but because of His intended purpose for us. So Husbands love your wives by giving your life for her. You say but she doesn’t deserve it that kind of love. We were not worthy of Christ sacrificial love but through His sacrifice He will make us Holy. Love your wife not because she is worthy of sacrificial love but because Christ so loved us. Just as wives submit to yoru husbands as unto Christ. Not because your husband is worthy of your submission but because Christ is worthy.

If we would only submit to or love those who are worthy then we will never submit and never love.

Rather consider the intended purpose of God for your spouse. Submit to them and love them for who God intends them to be.