MATTIE'S CHRISTIAN PAGES

 

Eph. 5:25

Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for her..."

 

THE WOMAN'S POTENTIAL:  Does a woman need to submit to her husband in order to be a, "Woman of God"?  It’s amazing the countenance I see on the faces of the wives that live in that kind of environment: The defeat I since in their spirits; the cutting of their potential, to blossom... to become ALL that God wants them to be.  Or, in homes, where husbands don’t demand headship, as a hammer, but who are just "careless":  They just basically ignore their wives. There is no greater insult in life but to just ignore someone. This passage in Eph. 5:25-32 teaches ME that a husband is not to ignore his wife, he is to literally become focused with his attention on her life.

In the neglected or dominated wife you can see the separation, the disconnectedness, the brokenness. Sometimes the anger and frustration of her abuse shows up in public places, when she just can’t wait to get a word in with something that is against her husband in some subtle way. Or, when she is just kind of cold and removed. But I’ll tell you what excites me almost more than anything else in this world.  Nothing gives me as much joy as when I see a woman that is blossoming to her fullest potential, and I realize that the thing that motivates that potential for purity, becoming all that God wants her to be, is when her husband pours his love, and the place of Christ (as he does to his own body) onto her life. I have seen only a few couples in my lifetime where the wife is vibrant and alive and fresh and beautiful, and maximizing her potential... and, in return, loving their husbands back the way he needs to be loved and respected. I always know that this is a home where a man has loved his wife. Christ Loved the Church to make us pure and powerful, full of our potential; holy and blameless before Him, and, He applies it directly to your relationship with your wife men.

UNITY: (verses 30 & 31) Because we are all members of His Body this issue appeals to the whole dynamic of the Body of Christ. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother"... by the way, given a good home, it would take a pretty important cause to leave your father and mother. After all, they feed you, and put shoes on your feet; pay the rent; paid the light bills. Why would anyone in their right mind, given a normal home, ever leave their father and mother? Oh-h-h, that is... unless you fall in love! Now, that’s a cause you might think of leaving Mom and Dad for. ... "And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave (adhere - cling) to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." This is a great mystery, it relates directly to Christ and the Church. Not only is a wives potential at stake when a husband loves his wife, but also unity is at stake here also. One of the wonderful things that Christ’s love has done for us is to unify us with His Body and make us one. This text demonstrates that one of the wonderful things a husband’s love does is, it unifies two people to become one. Not just in flesh, as important as that may be, but, in spirit; emotions, and that whole wonderful drawing together in and with compatibility... ONENESS/UNITY.

If you say, "Well, that’s a little boring." All I can say is, you don’t want the alternative, which is: conflict, and disunity, and disharmony. No one ever has enjoyed a home where unity has not prevailed. Unity in marriage is the most important asset to their children. You love your wife = you love their mother.

So, what is the outcome of men who love their wives? It is the maximizing of her potential; it is the wonderful unity of the relationship with ALL of its benefits. And, thirdly men, when you love your wife you maintain a testimony. 

TESTIMONY: (verse 32): "This is a great mystery, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the Church. Never the less, let each individual among you also love his own wife even as he loves himself."   Do you realize what he is saying? All the way through the fabric of this exhortation to you as men, to love your own wife, he is weaving the picture of Christ and the Church. The invisible reality of a crucified Christ, sensitively sacrificing himself for my fallen needs; loving me through every moment of life; unifying us together with Him. The text says that it is an invisible thing, a mystery thing, but you know what gives testimony to it on this glob? Christian homes give testimony to it because Christian homes model the tremendous eternal dynamic of Christ and the Church. It is where it becomes alive and fresh for the entire world to see. Men, why would you want to love your wives like this? If for no other reason, if you really don’t care about her potential (which is hard to believe that you don’t); If you really don’t care about oneness, (which would be insane), then, you must care about the testimony of Christ in your life, and that God has assigned to you the privilege of publicly modeling Christ in the Church through your own relationship with your wife. And, in a world that has changed its mind, one of the great testimonies that you need to communicate is your home life. In a world where homes are TOTALLY disorientated, and, even when they hang together as husband and wife, they don’t seem to know how to make it work; In a world that DESPERATELY needs to know what it means that, "Christ loves the Church", and that the Church responds to the Headship of Christ. In a world like this, men, YOU bare the responsibility to love your wife as Christ loved the Church and, gave up Himself for her, and, to make it right with her that the entire world may know. If your going to be a missionary, or a pastor, a Christian worker or, if the Lord leads you into some other endeavor, there could be fewer things more important and powerful in your life and ministry, than a home that incarnates the wonderful love of God. For people are watching, and they are noticing, and they will come and say to you, "Why is your home like this?" and you will say, "I thought you’d never ask. Let me show you to the Savior."  POWERFUL!

All of this doesn’t begin by saying, "I’ll be a good partner." Men, this is your reasonable service... yielding to the Holy Spirit. It all begins when you say that you will commit to being a partner with the Spirit of God. And when you say that you’ll be a partner with the Spirit of God, (living in the sphere; submitting to Him; taking singular influence from Him), then He says, "Love." This is the fruit of the Spirit. You say, "Alright Lord, where do you want me to apply it", and He says, "To your wife." You see, it’s not partnership with your wife, it’s partnership with the Spirit of God that drives you to Love your wife. You see it’s not really what kind of a husband you will be, it’s whether or not you will be "men of God", that’s the issue. And when you say you will be men of God, motivated by the Spirit, then... you will automatically love your wife... and all of the rest will take care of itself. God help you men! By His Power you can make it work.