Christ’s love for the church is without limits. He gave His life for the church - before you loved Him. His love does not depend on your love for Him. Under God’s authority-love your
wife as service as giving your life to God. Be thankful for your wife and realize the favor
you have received from God.’ (Proverbs 18:22)
A husband must seek to be like Christ if his wife is to be like the Church. Christ honors wives by using them to describe the glories of heaven and the church, ‘the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.’ Our marriages should reflect the image of these glories on this earth. To honor your wife is to communicate the same value God has for her, a value that finds its expression in the glories of heaven. A family starts with marriage and it is very much seen with the bonding of Adam and Eve in Gen. 2:18, 21-24. Here we can also see that God’s idea about a married couple is
companionship and intimacy. There is a great bond between a parent and child, but the relationship between a husband and wife ought to be a greater bond than a parent and child.
Jesus expressed loved for the church both by words and by deeds. If a husband properly loves his wife, he will tell her so, but he will also show it by his actions.
As the head of the family a man should provide, not just for himself, but for his whole household.(Genesis 3:17-19, 2 Thess. 3:10). Providing family income is a God-given responsibility for the husband. It is not the Wife’s responsibility. There may be emergency exceptions. Paul presents another responsibility of husbands in I Timothy 5:8 – ‘But if any provide not for his own, especially for those of his own household, he hath denied the faith and is worse than an infidel’. The husband has a responsibility to finance or support or provide for his family.
But Some husbands tend to neglect their God given responsibilities neglect the spiritual training of the wife and the children, instead of they disciplined the children they will put the responsibility of a wife to discipline the children, even though he is available to administer it himself, and sometimes they even place the burden of providing for the family upon the wife’s shoulders while these men grunting behind the upheld newspaper while the home decays around them. He flips the channels with the television remote while his wife hears the children’s prayers and tucks them in bed. His weekends are filled with golf, football, baseball and other extracurricular activities outside the family etc while his wife struggle alone taking care the needs of her kids. A husband needs to assume a certain responsibility for the spiritual growth of his wife. In order to do that, though, husbands must ‘give themselves’ for their wives by laying aside many of their own personal desires and conveniences in order to fulfill a higher and prior call.
The role of the husband is to love his wife to such a degree that she feels secure in that love. Jesus loved us with a sacrificial love. Jesus loved absolutely. His love was without limitation, without condition, and without reserve. The husband is to be committed to total unselfishness in the relationship. Husbands are not to be caustic, bitter, resentful or sarcastic toward their wives as you give yourself to her, allowing your hopes, your desires - your life - to merge with your wife then you are truly united as you are with Christ. Your true love calls for understanding, sensitivity, and meeting your wife’s needs. It involves a sincere effort to understand her feelings, fears, anxieties, concerns, God given goals, dreams, and desires. Marriages work when two people sacrifice for each other. They fail when two people keep expecting the other to sacrifice for them. Sacrifice always involves giving something up.
Christ is always at work transforming sinners into saints. He demonstrates His love for the church by ever working to improve her. The church reflects the glory of this transformation as it positively influences the world. Similarly, husbands should be about the work of transforming their wives through love. Radiant wives reflect the glories of a husband .And the sad wives reflect the remorse and detachment. Your love for your wife should be the model how Christ loves the Church. Jesus is your role model you are the only church that most people see in your marriage. Every 45 seconds in the United States a family is torn apart by divorce. Some husbands Display their Wife for Men to look at in a lustful way but we need to Display our Wife, Like Jesus Displays His Wife- the Church. You see God has given you your wife as a blessing here on earth. To love and cherish for your whole life. Man has been given the spiritual leadership in the family and he and his family needs to reflect Godly ways not worldly ways. Some women dress immodestly and some men allow their wife and children’s to dress immodestly. The motivation that keeps her dressing with modesty comes first from desiring to please God, and second by desiring to please her husband. The Grace of God is what motivates Jesus Christ’s bride to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions. A greed for money can keep the husband away from the family for long hours, or it can cause him to place unreasonable restraints on the family spending. Either way, this can lead to marital problems. Godliness begins with a proper relationship to God.
A Godly husband is kind and compassionate, honest, hard-working, truthful, exercises self-control, has a gentle tongue, generous, willing to be corrected (even by his wife) and listens to counsel, man of integrity, is faithful and reliable, is forgiving, willing to admit he is wrong, humble, not contentious, but a peacemaker, has control of his temper, is a man who avoids excesses, has a concern for others, especially the poor and the oppressed, can keep a confidence, fears God and is obedient to His Word, is not a jealous man, has a positive outlook on life
Eph 5:25-28 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
God makes time for us and Jesus Christ spent his time and attention with his bride the Church. If you really want to be like Him, give your proper care as God commanded to your wife. God presented Adam with a wife who was created especially for him.
Therefore it would be safe to say that his wedding was for the man. Adam had looked for a helper among the animals and could not find one. The entire setting and ceremony of God’s provision of Adam’s bride was arranged before the woman was created.
First, we must overcome our self-centered natures, if we are to regularly make sacrifices for our wives. Jesus Christ is the Lord of the Church, and demonstrated his lordship by sacrificing himself for his Church. Therefore sacrifice is your responsibility as a Christian man. Putting your wife first requires humility. Sometimes wives are good at humbling their husbands, but this is not her responsibility. The husband is responsible for humbling himself. God’s model for the married man begins with humility. The Lord says that you are the husband, the head of your household. But, having said that, the subsequent humility also manifests itself in self denial. Don’t push your own desires, wants, needs, or your own way; seek your wife’s way first. Seek that which will build her up, not tear her down.
Be devoted, think of her first, and assume your responsibility as the spiritual leader in your home.
To fulfill your leadership requirement, grow in grace and knowledge so you may be a partner to your wife’s spiritual ambition; never quench her spiritual aspirations. Follow the Lord’s model by cultivating tenderness, strength, and the initiative of a listening ear to accept your responsibility in the family.
Treat women nicely, for a woman is created from a rib, and the most curved portion of the rib is its upper portion; so, if you should try to straighten it, it will break, but if you leave it as it is, it will remain crooked. So treat women nicely. So it was for this purpose that Christ gave himself for the church. What purpose? That we could be without spot or wrinkle, without blemish, that we could be pure and holy, and should be presented to Christ pure and hole, a beautiful bride for Jesus Christ in all holiness and purity.
Thank you and May God Bless you and your Marriage!
