WEDNESDAY July 10, 2024
Love’s Mystery
This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself....
Ephesians 5:32-33
Again, we see in Scripture the exhortation for a husband to love his wife. It is a constant theme running throughout this portion of the epistle. The mystery of God’s love is revealed to us, in that Christ gave His life for the Church––every individual believer in Christ: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us (1 John 3:16 NIV). Are you willing to lay down your life for your wife? Are you willing to deny yourself to care for her and love her? As a husband, Christ becomes the example for you to follow.
What did Jesus reveal in His prayer to the Father before the ultimate sacrifice of Himself on the Cross? It is the same great mystery of oneness we have with Jesus Christ, that He has with the Father:
Now I am no longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one as We are” (John 17:11).
Remember what God had said about the union of a man and wife: Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh (Genesis 2:24). In marriage, a husband and wife become one. Between Christ and the Church is the mystery of a marriage union whereby they are one:
“Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb [Christ] has come, and His wife [the Church] has made herself ready.” And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints (Revelation 19:7-8).
God desires that a husband loves his wife. If you do, you will have a blessed marriage.
If I wanted to find out whether a man was a Christian, I wouldn’t go to his minister. I would go and ask his wife. We need more Christian life in the home. If a man doesn’t treat his wife right, I don’t want to hear him talk about Christianity.
~D.L. Moody~
For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!
