Love Your Wives
Husbands, we’re called to love our wives even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. In marriage, your wife will often reflect back to you the same love you’ve shown her. When you love your wife as Christ loves, you’re cultivating love within your marriage and your family.
Wives can be the best nurturers and builders of the home when they have the security and safety of your love through a trusting marriage relationship. We can only love our wives through the love we receive from Christ, so we need to cultivate our own relationship with Jesus in order to be loving husbands.
When we try to love our wives our own way, apart from Jesus, God’s order for marriage is disrupted. It’s an impossible task to try to make marriage work in our own strength because it was designed to be a reflection of Christ and 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. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.”
Ephesians 5:25-30
Christ is Our King
Christ is the head of every man. We follow Christ as our leader and our authority. When we work, we work unto the Lord to please Him. We need to learn to fear God in marriage, revering Christ as the leader. Christ is our King!
When we don’t allow Christ to be our head we’re susceptible to putting our own ego in His place, or we may become passive expecting our wives to shoulder the burden of leading the marriage. God wants husbands who are active, and actively following Christ daily to lead our marriage.
“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”
1 Corinthians 11:3 – Christ the head highlighted.
Husbands – You’re a Spiritual Covering for Your Wife
As husbands are the head of our wives, we have spiritual authority over our marriage. If we aren’t following Christ, we are stepping outside of our authority in the marriage because marriage was designed for Christ to be our head, just as we are the head of our wives.
Because we’re given the authority to be the head of our wives, the way which we lead will determine the health of the marriage. God has entrusted us to always pointing our wives to Christ’s love and being an example of His love in the way we treat our wives.
“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”
1 Corinthians 11:3 – Husbands the head highlighted.
Part of our role as husbands is to help our wives in their own sanctification in Christ. Are we interfering with her sanctification or being a complement to it? Are we washing our wives in the word? That is how Jesus loved the church.
“.. that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word”
Ephesians 5:26
God is the Head of Christ
The pattern which husbands can look to in this order of submission is the pattern of God being the head of Christ. Jesus never did anything except what the Father told Him to. Marriage reflects this same submission of love in which the husband submits to Christ, and the wife submits to the husband. It’s not about domineering or control, it’s about a place of safety and security and reflects the perfect relationship of the Godhead.
“But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”
1 Corinthians 11:3 – God the head highlighted.
Husbands – You’re a Spiritual Protector for Your Marriage
Most husbands would agree we are the physical protectors of the home. We may lock the doors at night and even carry a firearm to protect our loved ones from intrusions. But did you know husbands are also spiritual protectors over our marriage?
We have the authority to defend our wives spiritually, protecting her from the lies of the enemy. We pray over our home and to God for direction. There is a spiritual protection over marriage when the husband is actively interceding in prayer.
Husbands – You Were Made for More
Our world dimenishes the honorable role of being a husband. It tells husbands they’re mere financial providers, or someone to lift heavy things, but God has called husbands into much more. The world can’t understand the deeper meaning of the role of husband as Scripture outlines. Do not follow the world’s traditions of being a husband – follow Christ.
Do you follow Christ as your King? Do you seek Him daily? Your relationship with Christ will be reflected in your marriage. Let Christ be your head and your leader. Follow Him and your marriage will reflect the order God established.