A Husband’s Love
How does Christ love the church? The bible says for husband’s to love their wives as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25). I don’t know if we will fully understand how Christ does that. But let’s try for a second … Christ died on a cross for His church, suffered hours of torture and pain, and said it was all worth it. He never tires of offering endless grace, mercy, forgiveness and love. Can you say you do that for your wife? Keep reading, I promise this will be encouraging ;-).
If we look at the definition of love according to the bible, this is what love says:
- Patient
- Kind
- Does not Envy
- Does not Boast
- Humble
- Honors Others
- Not Self-Seeking
- Not Easily Angered
- Keeps no Record of Wrongs
- Does not delight in evil
- Rejoices in Truth
- Protects
- Trusts
- Hopes
- Perserveres
- Never Fails
Do you do these for your wife? Some of them may be easier than others. For example, husbands may not envy what their wives have. Some of you may find it easy not to envy your wife. On the flip side, some of you may be envious of your wife’s career, that she’s more successful than you are. How about patience? Are you always patient with your wife? Maybe your wife does something that annoys you over and over again, but are you patient with her regardless of that? What about kindness? For some, that’s a walk in the park. But when your wife does something to annoy you how do you respond? Do you lash out or are you kind to her? When she makes a mistake, do you tell her things like, “You shouldn’t have done that” or “I told you so” or how about “you should have done this instead of that”? Those are not encouraging words to anybody, let alone your wife. And that does not show love.
God does all of those things for us. He never loses his patience. He’s always kind to us when we make the same mistake over and over again. Once we ask for forgiveness, God keeps no record of wrong. He doesn’t bring up what we’ve done in the past. In fact He says our future is greater then our past! How about that? Do you bring up your wife’s past and hold it against her?
God’s love is endless. That’s the encouraging part. Even when we fail as husbands, God is patient with us, loves us and helps encourage us to be more like him in how we love our wives. Take a look at the list above. What areas do you need to work on in loving your wife? Take one each day and ask God what you need to do to change. For me, I need to work on my patience. No matter how many times my wife does something I don’t like, I need to be patient with her.
We as husbands need to love our wives just as Christ loves the church. When we do that we are showing Christ’s love to the world!