What do you value? There are many things that we attribute value to. For example our money system in America, the paper that we hold in our hands is just simply paper, similar to receipts, junk mail, and advertisements that we throw away each day; however we would never knowingly throw away a dollar, because we have attributed value to it. There are many things in life that are of value to one person and not to the next, as precious as our money is to us, in many third world countries or remote villages who don't rely upon currency, our dollar bills are simply paper to them. Value is attributed by us to certain things; that being said what are some things that Christ attributed value or worth to? Christ obviously placed value or worth upon Himself, His Father, and The Holy Spirit as the Godhead. Christ also placed value upon those who would follow Him, or in short the "church". He shows us this value because He tells us through scripture and in particular in Ephesians 5:25 that He gave/handed over Himself for her (the church). Therefore Christ placed much worth and much value in the church that He would hand Himself over for her.
Obviously you know though that
the emphasis in Ephesians 5 is not in the fact that Christ gave Himself for the
church, but it is in the comparison that Christ demands that same love which He
displayed for the church to be portrayed from a husband to his wife. Christ
placed extreme value in the church, to the point of death, He is commanding us
to find that same value in our spouses. Christ does not stop at the point
of calling us to find value in the same way that He valued our souls, He
continues in verse 29 calling us to love our wife in the same way that we love
our own bodies. I am not sure about you, but I am scared and fear bodily
pain, in that way I seek in every way and effort to protect my body from
physical pain and damage. This imagery that is set before us is that in
the same fashion that we seek to protect our body physically, emotionally, and
mentally, so should we seek to protect and love our wife. Christ is
serious that we as men practice spiritual headship in which we are the leader
and protector of our homes.
Now I am not unwise in the aspect
that I recognize most of whom read this have not only been married longer than
I have, but many have been married longer than I have been alive; I have
learned much about how to treat my wife and my family by watching the biblical
example that many of you portray for me as a young husband and father. However
with that being said, the Lord has spoke into my life the past week a burning
desire to discover and share the way in which we as Men, the spiritual leaders
of our household should treat our wife as a testimony of Christ's love for the
church to a world around us who does not understand a biblical view of marriage
and therefore does not understand the imagery displayed through marriage of
Christ's love for the church. Therefore I urge you as Godly men, publicly
share with others how you love your wife, adore her, and "love her more
than your own body" so that the hurting and dying world around us will see
the biblical view of what marriage should be and can understand what Christ has
done for us through loving us more than He loved His own body.
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