Title: Love, as Christ loves the church!
Text: Eph 5:22-23
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
[Some years back], the Harry S. Truman Library in Independence, Missouri made public 1,300 recently discovered letters that the late President wrote to his wife, Bess, over the course of a half-century. Mr. Truman had a lifelong rule of writing to his wife every day they were apart.
He followed this rule whenever he was away on official business or whenever Bess left Washington to visit her beloved Independence. Scholars are examining the letters for any new light they may throw on political and diplomatic history. For our part, we were most impressed by the simple fact that every day he was away, the President of the United States took time out from his dealing with the world's most powerful leaders to sit down and write a letter to his wife.
Bits & Pieces, October 15, 1992, pp. 15-16.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” Gen2:24; Eph 5;31; Matt.19:5
Many today believe that the couple makes marriage and thus they can decide what their wedding and marriage should be like. In reality, the Word of the Lord teaches that God makes marriage. Psalm 127:1 testifies, “Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” And Jesus proclaimed in answer to those who sought to do with marriage whatever they wanted:
“Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate." (St. Matthew 19:4-6)
By becoming husband and wife and joining together in one family we find in a Christian marriage the importance of: Promise, Sacrifice and Joy.
Promise
As we pledge our love for one another in marriage and promise to hold that love for as long as we both shall live; we find in the Lutheran Service Book marriage rite three readings from Genesis, Matthew and our epistle reading for today in Ephesians 5 where this verse is present. “The husband will be joined to his wife and the two will become one flesh.”
As individuals the two now become one. As husband and wife there is the promise to be and think as one. Not that you lose yourself and simply parrot what the other says or desire what they desire, but that your joy as a couple will be to live your life for each other … to care for each other … to make decisions with each other in mind because formerly the two are now one.
The apostle Paul tells us that this is a mystery and that it is profound and that this marriage union of becoming one refers to Christ and His Church.
Love, as Christ loves the church!
To understand the love of husband and wife is to understand Christ’s love. Wives are called to love and respect their husbands who have been given the position of headship which reflects the order of creation in the family just as Christ is the head of the church but submits to the Father’s will. – Not my will by thy will be done. - And the husband is to love his wife and give himself fully to her as Christ gave himself up unto death for his bride … the church.
This is a difficult responsibility for both husbands and wives as we are not Christ and in fact we all fall short daily as sinners. It is not about the wife keeping her part of the marriage bargain, so that the husband will keep his … or about the husband doing his part, so that the wife will submit and do hers. It is in fact, that even though both will fail and fall short daily they are one … and called to be and remain one … in love and respect for one another.
Love, as Christ loves the church!
And Christ love was a sacrificial love!
Ill.
William Gladstone, in announcing the death of Princess Alice to the House of Commons, told a touching story. The little daughter of the Princess was seriously ill with diphtheria. The doctors told the princess not to kiss her little daughter and endanger her own life by breathing the child's breath.
Once when the child was struggling to breathe, the mother, forgetting herself entirely, took the little one into her arms to keep her from choking to death. Rasping and struggling for her life, and without thinking of herself the mother tenderly kissed her daughter. She got diphtheria and some days thereafter went to be forever with the Lord.
Real love forgets self. Real love knows no danger. Real love doesn't count the cost. The Bible says, "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it." Song of Solomon 8:7
Source Unknown.
Sacrifice
Ill.
To sacrifice is to give of oneself for the benefit of the other.
When I was getting married, my dad took me aside and said, “Russ marriage is a big responsibility. You are making a commitment.” He then told me the secret to a long marriage, “Love is about total compromise.”
These next words from my dad bear keeping close attention to, and I believe are most importantly given for the benefit of we husbands, “When it feels like you’re giving 80% and your spouse is giving 20% it is probably 50-50%” Compromise always feels like we are giving more. It at times is a sacrifice for the benefit of the other and we know and understand that Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice for you and me, and the sons of disobedience so that the sins of the whole world might be forgiven by Christ’s life given on the cross.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
I heard it said once that a husband and wife were trying to decide where to go on vacation. The husband wanted to go to New York, the Big Apple, and see the Empire State Building and the Statue of Liberty while the wife wanted to go to Florida and just relax at a resort, so they compromised … they went to Florida. A marriage built by God is a loving marriage of compromise and sacrifice.
Paul continues:
28 In the same way husbands 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 we are members of his body.
Love, as Christ loves the church!
Joy
The blessings that are united in marriage are hard to explain; through the biblical model of love and respect, submission and sacrifice two unique individuals are joined together in the union of husband and wife. The resulting joy can sustain both in times of trial and suffering.
Christ’s suffering brought joy and peace to his church. His love for the church brought his sacrificial death on the cross for you and husbands are to model that sacrificial love for his wife as he gives himself for her and the care of his family. Wives also respect and love their husband as unto Christ who has saved and sanctified - which is to make holy - his bride the church.
Being saved is something the church knows quite a bit about. Sacrificial love as Christ gave for the life of the world is brought to His children by faith and is also modeled as we give ourselves to one another both in marriage and in service to others.
31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Paul says … 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
May each of us joy always in the union and oneness of our marriage vowels, connected to Jesus Christ who is the way the truth and the life. He is the one who carries you and me through the times of hardship in your marriage and family life together that all marriages will need to endure.
For those of you who have not, and are not united in marriage at this time: God may make a way … weather young and never married or older and not currently married or widowed … so that your life may be filled with Love … and respect, joy … and peace, submission … and yes sacrifice; for what God has joined together let no man separate.
Love, as Christ loves the church!
In the name of the Father, and of the Son + and of the Holy Spirit!
Amen
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