Ephesians 5:25-27 (NKJV)
“25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.”
The part of this Scripture passage that has been resonating in my heart this past two weeks is “the washing of water by the Word”. That phrase kept going through my mind and heart. The Word of God can wash my heart and soul to become more like Jesus. I decided to look that passage up to get the whole picture of what the Lord was telling us. To my surprise, I had forgotten it was dealing with family relationships.
Biblical Marriage Attitudes
To break it down to where we live now, Paul was telling the husbands to love their wives in the same way Jesus loves us. He then lists some of the things Jesus did to show that love:
- He love the Church
- He gave Himself for her
- He sanctifies and cleans her by the Word of God
- He is planning to present her to Himself all gloriously clean, without any sins, faults or blemishes.
- His work in our lives cause us to become holy without blemish
This makes loving a wife a big deal. Men are to love their wives with a pure heart of love like Jesus has. They are to give themselves to God for her sake. They are for live a sanctified life before her to help her become clean and pure before God.
Kind of a long list for mere mortal men. Yet, with Holy Spirit on his side, a man can become that kind of husband. He can become centered in his acceptance by God, his foundation built on the Word of God in order to not be reactive instead of proactive in his marriage. Unfortunately, men in the world today are shown as idiots on TV, failures in cartoons and most comedies are a total mockery of true manhood. Compared to Biblical manhood what we see in media platforms are pitiful, worn down men or total brutes. Neither is a man after Jesus’ lifestyle. Though he never married, he treated women with respect and kindness.
The Scripture before this one tells the wife to submit to her husband, as to the Lord. What makes it hard for most of us women, is a lot of men don’t act much like the Lord Jesus. God’s best plan is for a unified marriage. Each partner having strengths the other doesn’t have making a stronger union. When we marry thinking we have to fight for our position, we miss the whole point. All of us are to live a life submitted to God the Father, in the Name of Jesus by the power of Holy Spirit. We are not in this union alone, when we ask God to be our partner. He created us and knows where each of us are coming from and how to make us truly become one in Him.
My prayer this week is for all of us who have a husband or wife to ask the Lord to reveal areas that need His healing touch and help to change. He is the Waymaker, Peace Giver and Healer.
