AS CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church” (Ephesians 5:25-29).

Paul doesn’t leave us without examples. Our agape love for our wives will look like the love Christ has for the church. And as we look at the love Christ has for the church we can rejoice in this fact: This is how Christ loves me!

Christ’s love for the church is unconditional. In other words, his love for us is not based on any worth that is to be found in us. In fact, he chose to love us in spite of our unworthiness. “God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). We were dirty, filthy sinners and enemies of God when Christ died for us! Look what he did for us! He made us holy! He cleansed us by washing us with the water of the word. He dressed us radiantly and removed every stain and blemish of sin. This is how Christ loved the church! And this is how we Christian husbands are to love our wives! There is no place for us to say, “But she’s a shrew! She doesn’t lift a finger around the house. She’s impossible to please. She’s not worthy of that kind of love.” Our love is unconditional! We choose to love because that is what Christ did for us!

Christ’s love for the church was demonstrated in the fact that he gave himself up for her. We think of the glories of heaven that Christ surrendered when he willingly came to earth in human form. We think of the poverty of his life. We think of all the things that he gave up for us. But that’s not what Paul says! He says that Christ gave himself up for the church! The Lord Jesus surrendered everything that was rightfully his and having surrendered everything, surrendered himself! He went to the cross and suffered and died for the sake of his church.

If you say, “I am willing to lay down my life for my wife,” you haven’t got it yet! Paul doesn’t tell us to be willing to give ourselves up for our wives. He tells us to do what Jesus did and completely surrender ourselves for our wives! What does that look like in day to day life? We put our wives first, before our careers, our comforts, our health, our friends, our hunting or golf, NCAA basketball on TV, before everything! If we want to know that we are loving our wives like Christ loved the church then we should ask ourselves every day, “Am I laying down my life for my wife?”