The Husband’s Role – Part 1

Marriage is a divine institution. It’s also the first and foundational institution, which means that all other institutions, in one way or another, are built upon it. Before government, before the church, there was marriage. I believe that government is based upon marriage. I think that a society can only be as strong as its marriages. That’s why I’m concerned about the direction that we’re taking in the United States and in our culture today when it comes to marriage. We see the devaluation of marriage, and we see the redefinition of marriage and nothing but bad can come out of that when we forsake God’s design for marriage. When we forsake our gender roles of who God made us and that God has put man and women together to be fruitful and multiply and for us to raise our children in the ways of the Lord. Satan hates marriage, and I believe these attacks upon marriage have their origin from Satan himself.

God designed marriage to be one man and one woman, each having a role and a responsibility. Last week we looked at the wife’s role. The wife is to love her husband, she is to submit to her husband, and she is to respect her husband. I encouraged you, Ladies, to take down those three points as we talked about them. The husband also has a responsibility, or role, or I like to use the word “duty,” a part that he must play just as the different parts in music combine to produce harmony, so when each partner, the man and the wife, are fulfilling their own responsibilities the results will be beautiful harmony and blessedness. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the great Baptist preacher from England said, “If the home was ruled according to God’s Word, angels could be invited to dwell with us and not feel out of their element.” I’ve always loved that statement. When God’s Word is ruling our hearts and our homes, even angels could feel at home in the presence of that kind of a home.

There are three responsibilities and roles for the wife, and there are three for the men. I will give them to you, then we will go back and only look at the first one. Husbands are to love their wives sincerely, they are to dwell with them understandingly, and they are to honor them highly. So, we are only going to look at the first and will look at the next two next time. Tonight we will look at husbands love your wife sincerely. I will read the whole passage and then go back and unpack it for you. It will take a couple of weeks. It starts in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives…,” notice that little word “ought.” This is why I use the word “duty.” That conveys duty and responsibility. You ought to love your wives, verse 28, “…as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but he nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church.” So he rolls these two metaphors together; that we are to love our wives as Christ loved the church, and we are to love our wives as our own bodies. Both are seen in verse 29, this is kind of a summary. In verse 30 he says, “For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” And then he quotes the classic Genesis passage, “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”

The first thing that Paul tells husbands to do in this passage is expecting the wife and the husband to be Spirit-filled. Remember chapter 5, verse 18, “Be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Now, I put in “Holy” Spirit, though it’s not in the text because I am convinced it’s talking about the Holy Spirit. It is actually, “…be filled with the Spirit.” I have had people argue with me saying that it just means be spirited, be filled with your spirit. No. You are filled with the Holy Spirit, that’s what the command is. The contrast, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess…,” don’t let alcohol ruin your life and your marriage, but rather the contrast “…be filled.” In the Greek it’s a command, an imperative, not an option. God is actually commanding all Christians to be Spirit-filled. It’s in the present tense, “be ye, being filled” with the Holy Spirit, ongoing continued. You don’t just get one filling, it’s a constant ongoing continual filling of the Holy Spirit. Some of you say, “Well, I got filled with the Holy Spirit 20 years ago.” “Yeah, and it’s all done drained out, Buckaroo!” You need a new dose of the Ghost. You need to be filled afresh, moment by moment. When we are filled with the Spirit, we will be joyful, speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord. We are going to see tonight that the way a husband loves his wife is to communicate with her. When you’re Spirit-filled your mouth is open and you learn to communicate, you learn to talk. A Spirit-filled man is a man who can talk to his wife and vice versa. They will also be thankful,“Giving thanks…one to another in the fear of God;” and they will be submissive, “…one to another in the fear of God.” Joyful, thankful and submissive, the husband and wife both submitting in the fear of the Lord.

A husband is to love his wife. I think it is Biblical to say that you could summarize the wife’s role and the husband’s role with one word each. Here it is, wives—submit, and husbands—love. Now don’t think that submission is necessarily harder than loving, because loving means that you die to yourself and you seek the highest good of that object loved, that everything you do is for the good of your spouse. There is a sense in which, in loving your wife, you have to die to yourself to really seek the highest good of your wife and love her. So, Paul says in verse 25, “Husbands, love your wives.”

The Greek word for love is agape. The Greeks had several words for love, we have one word for love. We say, “I love peanut butter and jelly and I love my wife.” Obviously, my love for peanut butter and jelly is different than my love for my wife. “I love to ride a bike,” or “I love my wife too.” There are different kinds of love, but we are limited in our English language. We only have one word for love. They have the word philia which means brotherly love. They have the word storge, which means family love. They have the word eros, which is not in the Bible by the way, where we get our word erotic, which is a sensual love. That’s pretty much what the world thinks love is, an eros love. “I love you.” What they’re saying is, “I eros you.” They just want to have sex with the person. It’s not a real, genuine, seeking the highest good of that object loved. Here in the Bible, Paul uses a word that would’ve blown the minds of these gentlemen in the church at Ephesus. He says, “Husbands, I want you to agape your wives.” Now, I don’t have time to go into a lot of background, but in the Greco-Roman world of Paul’s day, women were just chattels. They were just things. Anybody that tells you that Christianity came on the scene and subjected women are out of their minds. They don’t know what they are talking about. Even in our own day, you go to parts of the world where Christianity has very little influence, and women have to be completely covered, they have to walk behind their husband, they don’t have any rights. In some places they can’t drive cars, they can’t speak, they can’t do anything. You bring Christianity into that country, and the woman is elevated. She is free. So Christ elevates women to their rightful place. He stopped at Jacob’s well in John 4 and said to a Samaritan woman who had lived with five guys and was shacking up with a dude at the time. He said, “Can I have something to drink?” He ended up offering her living water. They brought a woman who was taken in adultery, where the woman was caught “in the very act,” and Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you, but go and sin no more,” rather than Moses and the law which says that she should be stoned or condemned. Jesus brings grace, and Jesus brings truth.

So when these men in this Greco-Roman world, even Jewish men, when they heard these words, “Love (agape) your wives,” they’re thinking, “This can’t be! You actually want me to love (agape) my wife?” That’s exactly what Paul is saying, and to emphasize it, he says it three times. Did you notice it? Verses 25, 28 and 33. Let everything be confirmed or true in the mouth of two or three witnesses. So, Guys, three times the Lord says in His Word, you should love your wife. In verse 28, I already pointed it out, “Ought to love your wife…” speaking of the fact that it is an obligation. It doesn’t mean you don’t love her emotionally, but you have an obligation or a duty or a responsibility to love your wife. Now this command to love your wife is also what is called a present active imperative. It’s a command, and it’s in the present tense. It is also a verb, an action word. Love is not a feeling, it’s something you do. Paul is going to break it down by giving us some verbs for men, in the way that they are supposed to love their wives.

What does it really mean to love your wife? Well, as I’ve said before, love is not a passing emotion, it’s a continual devotion. Love is not just an emotion. I was reading today, Keller’s book, The Meaning of Marriage. He has an excellent section about how many times love is a verb, an action word. When we actually love someone in our actions, emotions and feelings will follow. This is not just in marriage, this is in all of life. You have somebody that you don’t like at work? Start treating them nice. Do something good to them. Give them some candy, but don’t poison it. I mean, actually do good things for those who persecute you. You know what’s going to happen? You’re going to actually start loving them. You’ll say, “Ah, they’re not so bad after all.” The emotion follows the action. We sit back and say, “I don’t feel love.” I wish I had a dime for every time I’ve heard somebody say, “I don’t love her. I don’t feel anything anymore.” Who said you’re supposed to feel something? That’s not to mean that emotions aren’t important, that emotions don’t follow. I’m not telling you to go out and marry somebody you don’t like. “Hey, I don’t like you so would you marry me? The pastor said I don’t have to love you, I just have to treat you nice.” I am convinced that if we choose, it’s a matter of the will, it’s a choice, and this is very important in marriage, you make a choice to love somebody. If love were just an emotion, it could not be commanded, right? This is an imperative. This is a command. You can’t command feelings. You walk up to a girl and say, “I command you to love me!” Wham! She hits you with her purse. You can’t command love, but you can command that you love somebody by your actions. Loving somebody is treating them the way God treats you and them. So, how do I wrap my mind around what love is? Love is treating people the way God treats them. Love is treating people the way God treats you. That’s what love is all about.

You are all familiar with 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Read these verses, Guys, and you’ll get the definition of love, fourteen qualities. It is patient, kind, it’s not jealous, not boastful or proud, not rude (wow, that’s a challenging one), does not demand its own way, not irritable (ouch that hurts), love keeps no record of when it has been wronged, (you know, you carry your little book and when you get in an argument you say, “Back three years ago, on October 5 at 3pm you sneezed and didn’t cover your mouth and it got on me! I have it right here, I remember, I wrote that down.”) It doesn’t keep record of things that you’ve done wrong. It’s never glad about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up. I love that. That's 1 Corinthians 13:7. Love never gives up. Love never loses faith, is always hopeful, endures through every circumstance and will last forever. Husbands love your wives—just that one statement is enough to keep you busy for a lifetime, amen? Remember, Galatians 5:22 says that love is the fruit of the Holy Spirit. So, you’re not going to do it without being filled with the Holy Spirit.

This is where I want to breakout down. I want to give you five ways to love your wife. If the Bible commands us to love your wife, here are five practical ways to do it taken from this text. First, love your wife unconditionally. Unconditionally. You ask, “Well, where’d he get that?” Verse 25, “…as Christ loved the church…” What kind of love did Christ have for the church? Unconditional love. In other words, you don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to merit it. You don’t have to deserve it. You don’t have to perform. Remember, marriage is a covenant contract. It’s not a consumer economy. “You know, you keep looking good, you keep cooking good, you keep satisfying me, and I’ll hang in there with you.” “You don’t get ugly, I’ll stay married to you, but if you lose your value and you don’t meet my needs, I’m gonna ‘buy my groceries’ somewhere else.” It’s not a consumer relationship. In our culture today, that’s the way we think. Again, how many times have I heard, “Well, the marriage is no good for me anymore. It doesn’t meet my needs,” or “I don’t feel love anymore.” It’s not a consumer relationship. “As Christ loved the church…,” is unconditional love. That’s what he says there in verse 25, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church.” In the Old Testament, God was married to Israel. Jesus said He was the bridegroom. All throughout the New Testament, Paul the Apostle, writing to the believers in Corinth, said, “I have espoused you unto Christ as a chaste virgin.” I want you to think, in this whole context Paul uses theology to teach marriage. He uses deep theological truth to teach the husband’s love for the wife. Christ agaped the church. Christ loved the church. He gave Himself for it, and He wants to sanctify it. So, Paul uses doctrine and theology to convey this concept.

I want you to understand that marriage is not only a divine institution created by God, but marriage has been designed and created by God (are you ready for this?) to reflect God’s glory. It is a picture of the relationship of Christ and His church. It is a very holy union. I believe in the sanctity of marriage. It truly breaks my heart to see it so degraded, to think that people just want to define it however they feel pleased. The sanctity of life and the sanctity of marriage, these are all gifts from God. We need to keep that concept, and that a marriage relationship is actually to reflect the relationship between Christ and His church in His redeeming love. What an amazing thought that is. So Christ’s love for the church is unconditional. He loved us when we were undeserving, when we were unwilling and unworthy. Sometimes husbands will say, “I’d love my wife if she’d submit. I’d love my wife if she looked a little better. I’d love my wife if she could cook a little better. I’d love my wife if she was a little sweeter and nicer and kept the house cleaner or kept the kids quiet when I’m trying to watch football.” It’s unconditional love. Contrast that with the world’s love. Husbands, are you loving your wife unconditionally, no strings attached? Do you want your marriage to grow strong? Do you want your children to grow up walking with God? Do you want your church to be powerful, strong and a witness to the community? Then, Husbands, you are to love your wife unconditionally.

The second way a husband is to love his wife is sacrificially. Notice in verse 25 again, “…He gave himself for it.” So, love your wife without condition as Christ loved the church. Love your wife sacrificially. Jesus actually gave Himself for the church. Whenever I study the doctrine of the church, I’m amazed at how important of a role and a place it plays. It’s the “apple of God’s eye.” It’s the church for which Christ gave His life and died to redeem—the pearl of great price, the treasure that is hidden in the field. Jesus came from heaven, down to earth, took on himself the form of a man, was weary, tired, tempted. He suffered on a cross and died. He rose from the dead. He lives so that we might be the church. What Jesus had to do to purchase the church and to create the church is an amazing thought. So, the husband’s love is to be sacrificial, self-denying, giving.

What husband wouldn’t die for his wife? If an intruder came into the house, what husband wouldn’t try to defend his wife and protect her as you would your own children? Yet, sometimes husbands are unwilling to actually live for their wife. They’re willing to take a bullet for their wife, but they are unwilling to go grocery shopping with them. The husband says, “I’m willing to die, but I won’t do the dishes! That’s not my job.” Or, go shopping with your wife. “Oh, Preacher, please don’t.” When you go to the mall, have you ever noticed that sign over the door that says “Abandon All Hope Ye Who Enter Here?” What does your wife do, you know? You say, “Okay, that’s it! That’s the right size. That’s a good price. Let’s get it. Let’s go.” She says, “I just want to look around.” Whenever I hear those words, “I want to look around,” I say, “Oh God!” Have you ever seen a grown man cry in the mall? “Oh, God, please!” Actually, truth be known, sometimes I look around more than my wife. She’s actually saying, “Come on, let’s go.” “I want to look at this.” Sometimes when we go in she’ll say, “Now, John, let’s not look at anything. Let’s just go get what we gotta get.” I had to throw that in there because my wife’s sitting in here today. But, there are those times when it’s like, “Oh man! Just have mercy,” when she says, “I just want to look around a little bit.” “Oh, Lord, have mercy. What do you want to look at? You’ve seen everything.” “I’m willing to die, but I’m not willing to look around, window shop.”

Thirdly, you are to love your wife sanctifyingly. Your love is to have a sanctifying affect upon your wife. I want you to look at verses 26 and 27. “That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church…,” now all this is the illustration of Christ’s love, sacrifice and His work to sanctify, or make holy, the church. “That he might sanctify and cleanse it…,” how? “…with the washing of water by the word, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.” So, Husbands, you are to have a sanctifying love for your wife. Their spiritual development you are to have in view. Now, I want you to ask yourself, Men, is your wife more spiritual because of you or in spite of you? Is she spiritual because of you or in spite of you? You want your wife to be strong in the Lord. You want her to be a woman of God. You can help facilitate that by praying for and encouraging her, being a model to her and an example, not trying to pull her down, but to elevate her with your encouragement and your prayers to love the Lord and to seek the things of the Lord. So you are to be a spiritual leader, have a sanctifying affect on your wife. You’re to walk with God in your personal life as a husband, pray, and pray together with your wife, and you are to be grounded and growing and study the Word. You can study the Word together. You can talk about the Word together. You can come to church and delight in the Word together.

I believe that the husband should take the lead in not only going to church but picking a church. So frequently I see couples that come to the church and the husband is like, “Well, whatever makes her happy. I mean she wants us to come, so we’re here. So, I’m here. I’d rather be home watching football.” A lot of times the husbands say, “Well, wherever you wanna go to church.” I think the husband should lead in the things of God’s Spirit. He should pay attention to sound doctrine. I don’t think you should pick a church based on its music, its sanctuary, its comfortable pews, parking lot or location. I think you should pick a church based on sound doctrine, that they are committed to teaching the Bible, that they have a high view of Scripture and are preaching and teaching the Word of God because that’s what is going to bring life, spiritual life, into your home and into your family. Notice, I love it when he says, “That he might sanctify it…” The Word of God and prayer produces sanctification in the life of the believer and the church, the washing of water by the Word. So you can wash your wife in the Word, and then verse 27, “…present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

You know, I’ve officiated a lot of weddings, and so many for so many years now people will come up to me and say, “You officiated our wedding.” I say, “I’ve never seen you before.” “Yeah, it was 30 years ago or 20 years ago.” “Well, hi it’s nice to meet you. You guys are still married? Okay, praise God.” I’ve never ever seen an ugly bride. I’ve never seen a disheveled bride. I’ve never seen a bride come down the aisle with spots on her dress and dirt on her face and hair, all freaked out like, “Let’s get this done with! Where is that guy?” You know, she’s been under the car taking out the transmission. There’s grease on her face. If the wedding is at 5 pm on a Saturday afternoon, she starts to get ready at like 2 am. I remember when my daughters got married. The wedding was late afternoon, and at like 8 am they’re starting to get the bride ready! It’s like, “What could take that long?” In Paul’s day too, by the way, Paul may have had in mind what they called the “bridal bath.” They actually bathed for hours before the bride would get ready. So, there’s a bridal bath, and then you gotta do the hair. You gotta do the makeup, you know. It takes about 12 hours to get her all ready. I mean, I’ve never seen a bride come down with her dress ripped or torn, and there are stains all over it. It’s like, “Okay, whatever, let’s just get this done.” They are always beautiful. I’ve seen some grooms that needed help. It’s like, “Dude, you could’ve at least combed your hair!” But, the bride is always beautiful. Whenever I officiate a wedding, the rules of the wedding are: Always keep your eye on the bride. When the bride comes up on the stage, you turn and watch. When the bride leaves, you turn and watch the bride. When she comes in, you always look at the bride. You know, when the church gets caught up to meet her heavenly bridegroom, we aren’t going to be eyeing our garments. We’re going to be looking at Jesus the groom. What an awesome thought! We’re not going to be looking at our righteous robes, we’re going to be looking at our Righteous Redeemer when we get to heaven, amen? But the bride is spotless, holy and sanctified. So, Husbands, you have a sanctifying affect by praying for and with your wife, grounding her in the Word of God, and encouraging her in the things of God’s Word.

The fourth way to love your wife is affectionately, verses 28 and 30. “So ought men to love their wives…,” and I want you to notice this, “…as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church,” why? Because “…we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.” Now, the Bible uses a bunch of pictures, but there are two pictures of the church in the New Testament that are some of my favorites. First, is the bride and second is the body. Remember the church is the bride of Christ, but it is also the body of Christ and Christ is the head. It speaks of our union and communion and that we’re united with Christ. So, your wife is both your bride and your own body, the two become one flesh. Paul says here, love your wife as Christ loved the church, which would take a lifetime with God’s help to ever live up to. I mean that’s just a standard way beyond anything I can comprehend. Paul is a realist, so he drops it down a notch. He kicks it down a notch and says, “Okay, you guys can understand this…you like yourself, you take care of yourself, you pamper yourself. Do unto your wife as you do unto yourself.” This is kind of a golden rule for marriage—do unto others as you would have them do unto you. How would you like people to treat you? Treat your wife that way, as your very own body. I know that when I am tired, I put myself to bed. When I’m hungry, I feed myself. When I’m thirsty, I get something to drink. I take care of myself. How much more important it is for me to take care of my wife, who is my own flesh.

Years ago there was a book on marriage that had a great title Do Yourself a Favor, Love Your Wife, and if you love yourself, you will love your wife. “No man ever hated his own flesh…,” but notice these words in verse 29, “…but nourisheth and cherisheth…,” that’s the description there, nourish and cherish. You know what those terms actually convey? They convey the idea of warming with body heat. They have the idea of warming with body heat to show affection. Now, this is a little hard for men to do. Men are kinda, “She knows I love her, I come home every day, don’t I? She knows I love her, I eat her food. I pay the bills. What more do you want, Preacher?” We take our wives for granted. We don’t realize what a precious gift they are. Our wives are the most precious gift this side of eternity that God has given to you. Your kids grow up and leave and they cleave, but you are still glued to your wife. Don’t let anything come in the way of your affection being shown to your wife, with your words, with your actions, with your communication, talking to them, as I said in Ephesians 5, speaking the truth in love and committing and spending time together. I am going to talk more about this when we get into our next points about communication, time together and dwelling with your wife. I love that story of the midwestern farmer. He and his wife went to bed that night, and a tornado or a twister hit their house ripping the roof off sucking them out in their bed together. The farmer and his wife were just sucked up into this tornado, and the wife started crying and freaking out. The farmer said, “Honey, this is no time to be crying.” She said, “I can’t help it! This is the first time we’ve been out alone together in 20 years!” The tendency is, “Oh, we’ve been married a long time, we don’t need to go out.” When you take your wife out to eat, actually go in the restaurant rather than just through drive thru, okay. Warm her with your body heat, show her affection, communicate, spend time together.

Last but not least, you love your wife exclusively. This is the fifth way a husband should love his wife, exclusively, verse 31. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh,” joined, leave; joined, cleave and one flesh. You say, “Well, Pastor John, you’ve already taught on this verse.” That’s right. And, why does God repeat it over and over again in the New Testament, and we’re not done yet. When we get to Matthew 19, when Jesus talked about divorce, Jesus is going to quote it. So, it’s in the book of Genesis, it’s the foundation for marriage, it’s in the book of Ephesians, and Jesus quotes it in Matthew 19. There’s leave, which is leaving all others. I want to couch that into terms of when you are joined to your wife, no one on planet earth takes her place. That would include images on the internet, that would include phone conversations, that would include your affections and your heart.

The Bible actually says this about a spiritual leader. This is a qualification for a pastor, that he be the husband of one wife. In the Greek that actually reads a one-woman man. That’s what that phrase means. To be a pastor, you are to be a one-woman man. You are to have eyes only for one woman, and there’s only one woman that can meet the needs of my life and that should have my affections. I am very careful to keep my focus on that one woman, my bride. That’s conveyed in that idea of leave father and mother. Now, love your parents, you appreciate your parents, but don’t ever let your parents come in between you and your spouse. Don’t let your parents come in between you and your spouse. Sometimes the worst thing you can do is have a parent try to counsel you in your marriage or run to them with all your problems, or complain about your husband, or complain about your wife. It’s a dangerous thing to do. Take it first to the Lord, find a spiritual friend that you can confide in, but leave means that you abandon all others, that you have only one person in your sight. Then you cleave to only her. So, you leave all others and you cleave, or you are glued, only to her.

When I teach on intimacy in marriage, I am going to point out that there is only one person on the whole planet that can meet your sexual needs, and that’s your spouse—one person, your husband or your wife. You are to cleave to her and then you become one flesh. That means that you are intimate only with her. The Bible says, “Drink waters from your own well.” It reminds me of the little boy who heard the 10 commandments in Sunday school. He came home and asked his Dad, “Dad, what does it mean ‘thou shalt not commit agriculture?’” Dad starts sweating bullets for a minute thinking, “Oh, how am I going to tell him about that?” He said, “What that means, Son, is you should not plow in your neighbor’s field.” It’s like my grandson, he is in kindergarten, he was asking Kristy the other day about the 10 commandments. I was thinking, “Oh, oh oh.”

The Bible actually says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery.” What did Jesus do? He took it a step further and said, “If you look lustfully, if you look longingly after someone, you have already committed adultery in your heart.” God actually wants us to guard our thoughts, our heart and our attitudes, because he knows that those can lead to action. If you sow a thought, you can reap an action. If you sow an action, you can reap a habit. If you sow a habit, then you can reap a destiny. So, we have to guard our thoughts and be careful.

The summary in verses 32-33, “This is a great mystery…,” so what is marriage? It is a mystery, because he speaks concerning Christ and the church. You don’t think Satan wants to destroy marriage, which is a picture or an image of Christ and the church? Certainly he does. “Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself, and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” By the way, when Jesus quotes this Genesis passage, when we get to the book of Matthew 19, He says God made them male and female and said for this cause a man will leave his father and mother and be cleaved to his wife. Jesus believed that marriage was one man and one woman for life. I have no problem with believing what Jesus says and being in His company. The woman, Catherine Marshall, said, “Every human being needs love. Most of our troubles spring from our lack of it. Like thirsty men in a desert, we perish without it.” Husbands, your wife is thirsty for love. God can only meet the deepest needs of her life, and no wife should ever expect her husband to meed the deepest needs of her life, but God has brought you into her life to love her unconditionally, sacrificially, sanctifyingly, affectionately, and exclusively. I believe that God will give you and myself, will give us, the strength and the power to do that. Let’s pray.