From the Desk of Melissa Reinert…
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.” – 1 Corinthians 13:4-7
The above scripture is often read at weddings. It was read during mine and my husband’s wedding ceremony, which was seven years ago last Sunday, Sept. 24! How fitting that I’m writing about marriage this week for our Fridays with FOCAS. I hope that you will enjoy my thoughts on this one.
Marriage is tough to say the least. That’s something I’ve learned well these last seven years. But I’ve also learned that my husband and I love each other deeply and we love the Lord even more. Couples who’ve been married much longer than us have told me that’s how it must be done. So that is the key to a lasting marriage: Love. As 1 Corinthians 13:7 says love “always perseveres.”
Ephesians chapter 5, goes into great detail how wives and husbands should love one another, by submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Oh that’s hard for all of us, I think. Submitting means to accept or yield to the will of another person. It means putting someone else’s desires and needs above your own. It exemplifies the greatest love that can be shown… to lay down your life for another.
Both husband and wife are to submit to each other. And they are to do this in reverence of Christ. Christ is our authority, our Lord. God’s will is always better than our plan. When a husband and wife put the other above their own self, they are a living example of the relationship between Jesus and the church.
Ephesians 5 continues… “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”
In return, husbands are to “love” their wives… “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.”