Husbands, Love Your Wives (Ephesians 5)

Ephesians 5:25-31: 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 

May 27th is the day that I am going to marry the woman that I love. I have vowed to make this commitment of marriage to her, and I am certainly going to keep that vow. This marriage has been on my mind very heavily as of late. Because of that, whenever the Bible gives instructions to husbands, I pay extra careful attention to those passages!

In terms of passages relating to husbands, this one is probably my favorite. The wording, imagery, and type/anti-type comparison here between marriage to your wife and Christ’s marriage to the church. This passage is just great.

Paul says that we (grouping myself in with husbands here for the sake of simplicity), need to love our wives as Christ loved the church. This love that Christ showed for the church was an ultimate love. It was a self sacrificial love. This was agape love. And Paul here says that we need to have this for our wives! You have to be willing to sacrifice for your wife.

Men, if you are not willing to sacrifice small things for her like watching football games on Sundays instead of spending time with her, going on dates with her, going to the store with her, or even spending money in just buying her some flowers, how can you say that you have true agape love for her? If you can’t sacrifice small things, how will you ever expect to give up your life if necessary?

Christ had ultimate love for the Church, his bride, and that is something that we have to emulate as husbands! We are to help keep our wives pure in the eyes of the Lord, that is part of our duty! Christ through his love kept us pure for God, so husbands must do the same.

The next part of the passage goes to respecting your wife’s body. A lot of men read into this saying that we need to treat our wives’ bodies like we treat our own. You are not supposed to respect her body like it’s yours, you are to respect it and take care of it BECAUSE it is yours! You become one at the point of marriage, and you need to respect and honor every part of her in that.

As husbands, treat her well. Meet not only the sacrificial needs, but also her physical needs. There is a biblically given responsibility of husbands to take care of, cherish, and romance their wives in the way that they need. Husbands, take note of this. As wives, don’t expect or settle for anything less!

Husbands, love your wives. Christ had the ultimate love for you, and we need to show our wives the same. Cherish your wives and take care of her in the way that you expect to be taken care of, and in the way that is commanded by God Himself.

Written by: Mason MacDonald

Bibliography:

New American Standard Bible: 1995 Update (La Habra, CA: The Lockman Foundation, 1995), Eph 5:25–31.