Husbands, love your wives

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her… husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. - Ephesians 5v25-28


I love my wife. I really do. For more than thirty years now she has been my friend, my helpmeet, my companion, my lover, and so much more. I cannot imagine life without. I do love her.

Yet, when I see the standards for love that God lays down I have to wonder how I really do. There are two standards here; love you wife as Christ loved the church and love your wife as you love your own flesh.

That really doesn’t need much expounding, does it. When I consider the love that Christ had for the church I fear that my love pales in comparison. When I consider how much I love myself, I fear that at times even there my love for my wife does not measure up.
I needed today’s challenge. I need it on a regular basis. My love for my wife is not to be compared to how much other men love their wives, but to how much Christ loved the church and how much I love me. To put that in the language of the deep American South – “That’s a whole heap o’ love.”