I Love Me

He who loves his wife loves himself.
(Ephesians 5:28 – ESV)

The title of our message sounds very selfish, doesn’t it? Yet in the light of our text, it begins to make sense. The text does not describe a situation where a man must first love himself in order to love his wife: don’t misread or misinterpret that. Despite what modern psychology might say, get the order right, and see what the Apostle Paul, guided along by the Holy Spirit was trying to tell us here. A man who loves his wife with all his life is going to reap substantial benefit personally. A wise man that loves his wife understands that it is for his own good.

This also applies to the Body of Christ, as we see clearly in the text itself. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church (Ephesians 5:32). We are to love our wives and Paul uses this to show how we are also to love the Church, as Christ does. We are to love our wives and our church as our own flesh, in this we are to be Christlike because Jesus nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body (Ephesians 5:29-30).

Of course, by way of implication, the reverse is also true. They may not realize it, but what men are doing in denying their wife their life is they are bringing hate on themselves. Now no one ever hated his own flesh unless of course they were out of their right minds. But that is the problem; men don’t understand what this verse brings out in bold relief. Many men don’t love their wives properly, and it is because they hate themselves. The same goes for church.

In order to nourish and cherish our relationship with our wives as we ought, we should see it in the context of this thought: if we are not loving our wives, if we are denying them some part of our love, if we are denying them some part of our lives, if we are cheating on them in practice or in our minds, if we are not nurturing and cherishing them, then what we are doing is hating ourselves, and no one in his right mind would do that.

Conversely, when we love our wives out of a pure heart motive what we are actually doing is something more than loving them; we are loving ourselves. Think about it: if we go all out for our wives won’t this make it better for us? Perhaps they won’t reciprocate but didn’t Christ give more than He got back? Do you want to be Christ like? Paul tells us husbands exactly how, in very simple terms. Christ loves the Church because it is His own body and we are to love our wives because we are one flesh. Improve you love life. Stop hating on yourself.

To Margie:

You are my darling, you are valuable and precious, you become more and more to me every day. May I love Christ so much that it spills out into every area of our lives.

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY SWEET PEA!!!!!!!

“Living For Today With An Eye For Tomorrow”©