This week we're talking about marriage,
and especially the relationships
that we have inside of a marriage.
And so what is the relationship between husband and wife
that God wants for the marriage?
In other words, what are the callings
that God gives to husbands and wives?
Well, before we get into that,
we need to go all the way back to creation
to be reminded of something.
So God created Adam and Eve with His own hands
as works of art.
And the Bible says that God saw what He made
and His declaration was,
it was very good.
Now, up until this point, up until they came along,
everything was good,
and that there was nothing wrong with it.
But it wasn't complete either.
You see, God didn't make paradise for its own sake,
He made it for people and without them,
it was just an empty shell.
So God makes everything just right.
And He saves the very best for last,
and He gives it to them and says, "All this is for you."
Creation was perfect,
and people were the very best part of it.
When we're talking about the relationships
of husband and wife inside of a marriage,
it's important to remember that our status in God's eyes,
as men and women, as husbands and wives,
is perfectly equal.
Both the man and the woman are together
the crown of God's creation.
Husbands and wives are perfectly equal before God.
And even though husbands and wives statuses
are perfectly equal before God,
that doesn't mean that God gave them the same calling
or the same function.
In other words, God did not make
husbands and wives clones of each other,
He made them to be complementary,
so that they actually strengthen the marriage.
Maybe one way to look at it is like this:
who's more important, the policeman or the fireman?
Well, unless you're a policeman or fireman,
you'd say neither, neither is more important,
but they don't do the same thing.
They don't have the same function.
They complement one another in order to serve you better.
The same is true in a marriage.
God wants the husband to be the head,
and He wants the wife to be the helper.
One of the sections of Scripture
that talks about that quite a bit, is Ephesians 5.
And I'd like to take a few minutes and a few moments
and talk about what God says to husbands and how
they should carry out their calling in the relationship.
And then tomorrow, we'll talk about the wives' calling.
So Ephesians 5 says this,
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church
"and gave Himself up for her to make her holy,
"cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,
"and to present her to Himself as a radiant church
"without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish,
"but holy and blameless.
"In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives
"as their own bodies.
"He who loves his wife loves himself."
So the main directive that God gives to husbands
is to love their wives.
And when we're talking about love,
we're talking about agape love, that special selfless love.
And so the husband being the head,
does not mean that he's the general in the army
barking out orders.
No, instead, this is the husband bending over backwards
to do what's best for his wife.
And his model is Jesus Himself.
And what did Jesus do?
Jesus loved the church so much
that He gave Himself up for her.
That means that the husband is going to sacrifice himself,
even his own preferences, in order to serve his wife.
The question that we as husbands
need to constantly ask ourselves is,
am I loving her like Jesus does?
Why do you think God gives men the directive
or husbands the directive to love their wives?
He doesn't give that directive to wives
though they should love their husbands.
Why do you think He specifically says,
"Husbands love your wives"?
Well, there are many reasons
but I think one of the main reasons is that
that's what the wife needs from her husband.
I would imagine that one of the greatest fears of women
is to be married to a pig.
And so God says, "Husbands, love,
"just as I loved you."
A husband who is bending over backwards
to do what's best for his wife
makes it a whole lot easier for her to carry out
her God given calling
of being that helper.
We'll talk more on that tomorrow.
Let's pray.
Dear Jesus, You loved the church
by dying on the cross to save us.
Motivate husbands to love their wives just as You loved us,
and help them to serve their wives.
In Your name we pray, Amen.
Thanks for watching.
Today we were talking about relationships
inside of marriage, and we said
that the main directive that God gives to husbands
is to love their wives.
And so husbands post below
what ways you show love to your wife every day
and wives we are not mind readers
and so please do share with us the ways
that you would like us to show you love every single day.