22 zWives, asubmit to your own husbands, bas to the Lord.23 For cthe husband is the head of the wife even as dChrist is the head of the church, his body, and is ehimself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit fin everything to their husbands.
25 gHusbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and hgave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by ithe washing of water jwith the word,27 so kthat he might present the church to himself in splendor,lwithout spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.1 28 In the same way mhusbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church,30 because nwe are members of his body. 31 o“Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, andpthe two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.33 However, qlet each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she rrespects her husband.
We noticed that the commands to submit and to love are not conditional. Wives and husbands are to fulfill their roles regardless of the other spouse's behavior.
ReplyDeleteLove and respect seem to be the biggest desires of wives and husbands, but too many times we only want to give love or respect when we feel we are being loved and respected. We need to make our goal to show love even when we don't feel respect and to show respect even when we don't feel love.
Cherie and I have discussed these verses numerous times over the years and we always come to the same conclusion. Women and men are different (duh) and we live life differently. In our case, she desires to feel the love and protection which I am fully capable of providing. On the other hand i feel the most important thing is to be respected by her and by our children and she does that wonderfully. When either of us drift from fulfilling these basic needs our relationship suffers. Thank you lord for providing wisdom and truth.
ReplyDeleteWe both agree that when we are serving each other in our marriage, when we are meeting each other's needs....life is sweet.. we just need to get it right more often. In other words, we should always love each other unconditionally, just as God loves us.
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