Husbands, Love your Wives!

　

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Ephesians 5:21-33

 

Husbands are called to be leaders…….. not dictators.

Husbands are the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.

Summit yourselves one to another in the fear of God.

 

How should a husband love his wife?

Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;

Ephesians 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.

1Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

 

As husbands, we are called to:

-love our wives as Christ loves the church.

-give of ourselves as Christ gave His life for the church.

-love our wives, as our own bodies.

-love our wives, as ourselves.

-love our wives without bitterness.

-show honor.

-work together as a team.

-Christlike leadership.

-discover the heart of our wife.

 

If I am struggling in my marriage or if I come from a broken Marriage, there is one thing I must do.

1. Look into my own heart and allow God to change me.

As husbands, we hold the keys to a successful marriage.

As long as I cast blame on my wife, I will be defeated.

 

We should be asking:

-How self-centered am I?

-Have I allowed God to teach me how to Love?

-Are my responses Christlike?

-Am I sensitive to my wife’s spirit?

-Do I understand her heart?

 

How can I be a Spiritual leader in the home if I am not sensitive to her spirit, if I do not understand her heart, if I do not respond in a Christlike manner, if I do not know how to love, and if I am full of self?

Am I willing to take a journey of discovery, which includes dying to self and learning to become a caring, sensitive, loving, and Christlike husband?

For most men, dying to self comes hard.

As we focus on dying to self, it is important that we focus primarily on the areas that we (husbands) need to change and not on areas that my wife needs to change.

 

2Corinthians 13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

Psalm 139:23 Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts:

24 And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Jesus Christ wants to purge us from our unChrist-like ways.

 

　

There are four male prejudices that we as husbands need to die to:

1. Woman are impossible to understand!

-One thing you can get most men to agree on is: the mysterious nature of women.

1Peter 3:7 Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.

The Apostle Peter clearly did not consider living with our wives in an understanding way an impossible task. He considered it absolutely essential to a vital relationship with God.

Our problem as men is that we are not always willing to put forth the effort to understand our wife, especially when we see it as being impossible.

At times we don’t understand our wives because the flesh is such a dominant influence.

We can learn to understand our wives and by doing so, it will drastically change our marriage for the better.

2. Women are the real problem!

-The most significant problem is that we as husbands have failed to exhibit Christlike leadership in our homes.

-When we are unwilling to learn how to understand our wives, we limit ourselves in bringing lasting solutions to relationship problems.

-Most men do not believe that they are at the root of the problem.

3. Women are inferior to men.

-This is often demonstrated by the demands that we place on our wives.

4. Men are supposed to be “the Boss”.

– The roll of boss means that the husband can disregard his wife’s needs while taking care of his own.

-As husbands, we are called to genuine spiritual leadership.

 

We need to stop thinking of ourselves as:

-the boss

-the king

-the emperor

-or possibly even the dictator

 

We are called to leadership in the home by:

-dying to self

-putting self-last and others first

 

　

　

Philippians 2:3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.

4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.

5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

 

When a man is willing to yield his “throne” to Christ, there will be a remarkable change in the dynamics of his home.

In order to be the spiritual leader in the home, we need to become Christ’s representative and be purged from unChristlike attitudes and behavior.

James 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.

23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:

24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.

 

A wife wants her husband to be her spiritual leader but she is designed by God to feel secure only when she sees that her husband is not the final authority in their marriage, but that he is looking to God for direction and guidance.

 

God is calling husbands to a deeper commitment to Himself.