/The wives: to your own husbands, as to the Lord, because a husband is
head of a wife, as also the Christ--head of the church, He--Savior of
the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives to
the husbands in all. The husbands: Love (with God's love) the wives,
just as also the Christ loved the church and delivered over Himself on
its behalf, in order that He cause it to be holy, having cleansed in the
bath of water in spoken word, in order that He may present to Himself
the church, glorious, not having a spot or a wrinkle nor what is of
these things, but in order that it be holy and blameless. So the
husbands are obligated to love (with God's love) their own wives as
their own bodies. The one loving (with God's love) his own wife loves
(with God's love) Himself. For no one ever despised his own flesh, but
nurtures and keeps it warm, just as also the Christ--the church. Because
we are parts of His body. On behalf of this a man will leave behind
father and mother and be stuck to His wife, and the two will come to be
into one flesh. This mystery is great; yet I myself speak into Christ
and into the church. However, also to you, to each and every one--he
love his own wife as himself, and the wife, in order to
respectfully-fear the husband. /
Just to get your attention: Every Christian marriage ceremony ought to
include the wife's vow that she will obey her husband. Now, having heard
this truth, you may be surprised as to the reason why. But it is the
very same reason that the Church is given to obey its husband, Christ
Jesus. For God didn't just give marriage so that man wouldn't be
lonesome. The Lord instituted marriage so that we might understand God
just a bit better, in particular with respect to His loving relationship
with His church.
Now, one thing that marriage does is help us comprehend, just a bit,
just how God can be One, yet more than one Person, all at the same time.
When you get married, the "he" and the "she" merge into an entirely new
entity called "we". No longer is the husband a completely independent
person from his wife, and vice versa. Now the two become one flesh,
stuck to each other, glued together by God. Yet the two remain
individual persons, in their own right. So it is with the Trinity, One,
yet three.
But that's not all that marriage teaches us about God. Jesus shows a
small bit of his care and concern for people when He attended the
wedding in Cana, turning water into wine to help out. So too is God's
care and concern for His people--the Church, reflected in Christian
marriage. Notice how it's not a husband's personal love of friendship or
romance by which He loves his wife. It's God's love by which a wife
loves her husband and it is God's love with which he loves his wife.
Now, we've all seen marriages fail when the human love of husband and
wife break down. You as a husband may have failed to love your wife, and
in selfishness, you loved yourself more instead. You as a wife may have
forgotten your role as helper to your husband, and disrespected him
instead. The problem is, you relied on your own love on those occasions,
a love that is corrupted by your sinfulness, so of course, problems
arose, arguments ensued, and dirty looks & gestures abounded.
But that's not what God intended for marriage. He made it a union that
sticks it out through thick or thin. That's because He provides the
"glue" that keeps husband and wife together. That glue is His Own agape
love! Where the husband leaves his skivvies on the bathroom floor for
the umpteenth time and his wife has had enough, or when the wife burns
the casserole once again and the husband becomes fed up, that's when
they've run out of their own love, and God's agape love kicks in.
For God's agape love is all about Jesus, and what He does. Both husband
and wife are baptized into Christ's Church. You all are made members of
it, and become part of the body of Christ forevermore. For Jesus loved
His church so much that He made her His bride. He did whatever it took
to love her, even to the point of giving up His life to make her His
heavenly bride. Jesus died for you on the + to make you His Own beloved,
to present you spotless & blameless to Him thru your baptismal bath.
So you subject yourself to Jesus to obey Him. But you know that obeying
your Savior is easy. You receive His gifts by faith, trusting in His
word of Gospel love when you hear it proclaimed to you. You receive His
body given & shed blood as your body's spiritual nourishment. So is the
wife's subjection to her husband. She obeys Him by willingly receiving
His sacrifices on her behalf, allowing him to bear His burdens out of
love for her. Such obedience is not like Edith fetching Archie a beer
when he bellows. It is a pure joy for a Christian wife to have her
husband love her as Christ loves His church.
John C. Drosendahl, Pastor
[email protected]
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