Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Thought:  To me, the kind of marital love that loves a mate as much as self will be much less likely to end in disaster.

Question:  Do I love my spouse as much as I love myself?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:33 (NIV):  "However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."

Paul returns to the practical.  "However" means he is not so ignorant as to focus and dwell only on high, difficult to grasp mysteries of theology.  He will re-emphasize the necessity of daily practices that exemplify broad, eternal truths.  Yes, there is the high mystery of God for us to consider; but we consider it in order to have it inspire us in the mundane days of living.  "Husband, love your wife"!  Do what God tells you to do now.  Demonstrate in the present the deep beauty of the eternal truths you cannot quite fully understand.  Realize you have the privilege of imitating Christ in what He did to save you.

And wives, "respect" your husbands.  Just as the church MUST keep Christ as authoritative Head:  decision-maker, pace-setter, example, etc., so must the wife keep her husband in that same position.  How do we respect our husband and hold him in this position?  We acknowledge his role of authority over us.  We defer to his decisions, we give him room to lead, we obey his requests and we actively trust him, and if we cannot trust him, we trust God in the situation instead.  Now some husbands, obviously, are not respectable.  But I believe, because this is commanded of wives more than once in scripture, that God intends to lead through even an unsavory human, through even seemingly tragic flaws of human nature.  Wives can trust in God as having placed their man in the position of leadership, so their trust is toward God and their respect still goes toward the husband--even when he does not deserve respect.  The buck stops with the obedient wife.  Her trust in God can make something beneficial out of what appears to be headed for disaster.  God, after all, is ever Sovereign.  We are never left in the lurch by God--abandoned only to some functioning ideal that He put into motion.  No.  He oversees everything--always.  And He blesses when we are obedient--even whan it's hard to obey.  To me, the bottom line is to respect a husband as though I was respecting Christ Himself.

Perhaps there are husbands who find it hard, very hard, to love their unlovable wives.  I think of Gomer and Hosea.  Love wins out in the end.  "All noble things are difficult"--Oswald Chambers.

Prayer:  Dear Lord, help husbands to love unselfishly and help wives respect their husbands, holding them in honor as authoritative leaders.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, we will perhaps fully comprehend God's purposes in marriage and in uniting Christ to the church, only when we're in Heaven.

Question:  Have I plumbed the mystery of Christ and the church?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:32 (NIV):  "This is a profound mystery--but I am talking about Christ and the church."

Indeed!  The understanding of humans fails to grasp all that God incorporated into this symbolism of marriage!  The mystery was "profound" to Paul:  he never fathomed its depth completely.  And the mystery remains "profound" to us today:  we live through marriages and yet cannot know the full depth of meaning attached to them.

Paul reminds us that he is not merely rehearsing to our ears the foundational steps to a good marriage:  no, he is reminding us that marriage speaks of something much larger:  of Christ and the church.  There is "marriage" here between God and man!  Spirit and flesh, "the two", join and become "one."  And just as human marriages produce children of blended parental qualities and similarities, so do we marvel at how God invades us by Spirit and yet allows us to retain our personalities--all the beautifully unique characteristics of our individualities!  Yet they are improved, softened, mastered by the Holy Spirit of God Who dwells in us, the clay jars, the temporary tabernacles, where God has chosen to dwell in these days.

Christ has done so much for us in this mysterious, wonderful uniting--this spiritual marriage.  We, the Bride, owe Him so much!  We owe our very lives!

Prayer:  Great God, I thank You for reserving some wisdoms to Yourself and keeping them as mysteries to us for now.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, the beautiful way God has engineered the institution of marriage is a thrilling and amazing statement of Christ's condescension.

Question:  Is the sacrificial love of Christ reflected in my marriage?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:31 (NIV):  " 'For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.' " 

Now we have Paul quoting the scripture to which I've previously referred, Genesis 2:24.  Early on God laid down this truth.  Notice how the idea of "divide and multiply" comes out here:  the elderly parents "lose" their child so that children can be "gained."  A separate family unit is produced.  Just as this father and mother became one flesh to produce this husband, so he has to break away from that family unit, unite with his wife and become "one flesh" with her (in sexual union) to produce their children.

So Christ suffered loss in death in order to "bring many sons unto Glory."  Christ went down so many could go up.  Christ died so all of us could live.  Christ left His heavenly Father so that new children could be added, and He did so, "marrying" Himself to His Bride, The Church, becoming one spiritually with all of us.  What a gift we have in Christ!!  Do we realize the power our "husband, Christ" has over us?

If anyone wonders to what extent a man "leaves his father and mother" to be successfully freed for a wife, let him look at what Jesus experienced when He left His heavenly Father.  Many things changed for Jesus when He gave up Heaven!  He willingly limited Himself for our sakes.

Prayer:  Lord, help us to relinquish self-love in our marriages.  Help us to unite with our mates in a way that glorifies Your Son.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, marriages would do well to meditate on the sacred, invisible and binding union God has created for them.

Question:  How is my mate spiritually joined to me?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:30 (NIV):  "for we are members of his body."

This verse reiterates the bonding of Christ The Head to us the living members of His body.  Christ will take care of us because we are an extension of Him!  So, too, the marriage situation:  husbands should take care of their wives because they are "extensions" of the husband:  one flesh with them.

Prayer:  Oh Lord, strengthen Christian marriages everywhere--cause them to seek Christ for the binding of their unions.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, a man's love for his wife should be as smooth and automatic a behavior as feeding himself.

Question:  Do I realize how much Christ cares for His church?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:29 (NIV):  "After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church--"

The beautiful design of God in marital relation is a mutuality of giving that mysteriously reflects Christ's giving love to the church members of His own body.  He is the Head and we are the rest of the body.  Christ does not "hate" His own "body" of believers.  We are one with Him.  So the husband and wife are inexorably linked together.  All a husband needs to do is recognize how he cares for himself, says this verse, and do the same for his wife, and then he will be preserving her for himself.

(Perhaps those men who do not love their wives aright are unable to because they do not love themselves aright.  The self-destructive type of behavior works beyond the one on into the life of the mate as well.)

We see Christ here providing the very basic needs:  food and primary care.  We have witnessed Christians everywhere being miraculously provided for in poverty and we are reminded of Scriptures that support that truth.  No righteous person will ever have to go begging.  (Psalm 37:25).  So should it be in a marriage.  Christ is the model for our husbands.

Prayer:  Dear God, help Christian husbands everywhere to love and care for their wives as they care for themselves.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, true, Christian love invested in a wife by her husband will always come back to that husband.

Question:  As a husband, have I loved my wife the way I love myself?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:28 (NIV):  "In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.  He who loves his wife loves himself."

Christ wants to join Himself to a Holy bride.  Christ loves Holiness and wants to share it with all of us who comprise the church.  Everything Christ does gives of Himself to achieve that end.  Likewise should Christian husbands want to give all they can to the betterment of their wives.  It becomes self-rewarding automatically.  Husbands don't have to love themselves because they will be loved by themselves through the love they give their wives.  It will come full circle.  And if a man is uncertain how to love his wife, he need only observe how he cares for his own body:  feeding it, grooming it, protecting it, meeting its needs, resting when tired, etc.  The sensitivity to his own flesh ought to be extended to the wife so that he finds himself equally concerned, if not moreso, for her needs, her tiredness, her protection, her grooming, her food, etc.  In this way, the power of love redirects normally selfish concern outward to the mate instead of back into self. 

A woman is designed by God to be, by and large, a Responder to those around her, particularly her husband.  This is how the love given her will not end there.  It will immediately rebound back to the husband.

As the "two become one flesh" in marriage, so when a husband loves his wife he really is loving himself.  She will give back to him as automatically as the grass becomes green when watered.

Prayer:  Lord, our nation's marriages need Your help!  Please encourage our married men to love their wives "as their own bodies."  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, to want the best for a mate is a powerful and pure thing.

Question:  Do I not want my loved one to be the best they can be?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:27 (NIV):  "and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless."

Why, again, did Christ love the church?  To make her holy and to present her, in that state, "to himself."  Christ wants the church, His bride, to join with Him, something like that of conjugal love; but He cannot join Himself to any trace of sin.  Christ wants to bring sinners to Heaven, up to The Father (with Whom Christ is One), but cannot unless their sin is purged away.  Christ wants to have us with Him but must go to great lengths to prepare us for this union.  But the end result is glorious!  The bride will be "radiant."!  Heaven is a place of glory and we too, as saved, cleansed children, will be glorious, in and through Christ's great work.

So, too, should a husband be so dedicated to his wife that her "condition" becomes the goal of all His efforts and the glowing focal point of their relationship.  So, too, the husband brings the wife along into the adventure of improving and perfecting her, under His gentle, sacrificial love, until she is all she can be in this life.  It is an unselfish love that does all it does for the loved one.  So, too, the husband should desire blamelessness, goodness, and no marks of detraction, upon his wife.  A true lover wants the loved one to be well, appear well and do well.

The reason the church is to be so nurtured is so that Christ may "partner" with her.  Thus a husband who gives all care to his wife will enjoy the benefits:  a beautiful, glowing, happy, clean and radiant partner that he may "present to himself"!

Prayer:  Loving Father, thank You for Christ's passionate care to purify us.  I pray that married couples all over our land would covet this kind of love in their relationships.  Amen. 

Thought:  To me, Christ's love is rich in its holy purposes.  Good marriages will also flourish if they set moral purity as an important goal.

Question:  When I love someone, is my goal to see them kept pure?

Scripture:  Ephesians 5:26 (NIV):  "to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,"

Why did Christ "give Himself up for the church"?  To make her holy and clean.  We cannot make ourselves holy.  We cannot cleanse ourselves.  We are truly helpless to function in a religion of reformation that, by personal ability and effort, corrects our flaws.  Perhaps we can strain until a few things appear better, but by and large, the corruption that works sin up and out of us into the world and against others is impossible for us to purify.  Only Jesus' blood can correct our sinful natures.  We are "made holy" only by Jesus Christ's holiness being imparted to us.  In other words, Christ has the ability to "save" the church; apparently husbands also have the responsibility to care for their wives in the same way, that is, to heroically bring them into what is good for them.  Christ wants the church good and clean--so should a husband want his wife to be.  Christ only has the power to preserve and save the church--so do men have the authority and the responsibility to protect their wives and bring them into improvements.

This kind of love that a husband is exhorted to have for his wife the, is a copy of Christ's love that exists solely for the welfare of the church.  Christ does not love to receive something back from the church in a direct sense; but indirectly He is happy to see her response to His holiness by her acquisition of it from Him and growth in it, of course.  So too, the husband should not be motivated to love her in order to get something from her, but to gift her so well that she indirectly returns to the husband the benefits of the graces received from him.  Christ will be happy to present His bride, the church, to His heavenly Father, as a clean, unblemished body, in that Great Day in the future.  So should a husband be so loving as to be proud of where he has steered his wife, proud of how she has flourished under his care and doting, proud of how she is all she is because of him and his care of her.  True love always cares to see the loved one become successful and rich in happiness.  Jesus Christ longs to bring us along to successful faith.  Our future is all His concern.

Christ cleanses the church "by the washing with water through the word."  This phrase appears elsewhere in scripture.  Titus 3:5 talks of "washing of rebirth."  Psalm 119:9 speaks of the word "cleansing one's way."  John 15:3 says we are clean through the spoken word of Christ.  But also here in Ephesians water is brought into the picture.  I believe it is figurative and not literal; that is, that God's Word is like water which is a cleansing agent.  God's Word is likened to water all throughout scripture.  It is the water to our spirit that we so thirst for as the message, the communication, from God.  Water has many beautiful functions:  one of them is its use for cleaning.  God's Word is a cleanser for our filthy hearts.  We cannot clean our hearts ourselves.  But God's Word directs us to where we find the only effective help:  to Christ.  Jesus' blood is the true cleanser, and God's Word brings us there.  The whole of scripture is a fantastical panorama of why we need Jesus, where He came from, what He did, Who He really is (God), and the impact He made on our world historically and spiritually, plus the most important message of all:  how to have Jesus' blood applied to our lives.  The last book, Revelation, in the last passage, dwells entirely on one theme:  the call to "come."  Come to the blood!  Come to the fountain of salvation in order to be clean!

If Christ has died to provide this kind of cleansing, so should husbands base their motives of love on keeping their wives pure, undefiled, holy and morally clean in every way.  Could we conclude that the deepest expression of love is to facilitate and enjoy the wholesome purity of the loved one?  That's something to think about, isn't it?

Prayer:  King of our hearts, call us back to the special love Christ demonstrates through His life and death!  Fill Christian marriages with sacrificial love.  Amen. 

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