In America, men love football. I love football, and as is the case today I am speaking from a decidedly male perspective. When football season roles around, I find it a struggle not to take every moment I can to catch the best college action on Saturdays and any and all NFL action on Sundays. But there is something that Scripture calls men to love more than football.
Ephesians 5 talks about a subject that many mean try to avoid – relationships. But the relationship described in Ephesians 5 is not a common relationship, but the relationship between a husband and a wife. This passage illuminates how men and women are to treat, love and respect each other. This passage is a directive from the Lord as to how men and women are to love those that they have joined for life, and how these principles will result in a lasting marriage.
Ephesians 5:25 gives specific instructions to husbands as to how they are to love their wives. This verse tells husbands, whether they have been married 1, 5, 10 or…gasp…50 years that they are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. On the one hand this is awesome in its quality, and beautiful in its simplicity. On the other hand this is all well and good, and of course beneficial because it is the word of the Lord, but a little too ethereal for some modern men.
Many modern men might not know what that exactly what it means to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Sure, we are all pretty confident that Christ really, really, loved the church. Heck, he died for her, so that’s saying a lot. But is that pretty much the extent of how we are to love our wives? Be settled with the necessity of dying for her if necessary, but other than that be confident in the knowledge that there’s not much else to it.
Undoubtedly, there is much more to it than that. When one takes a deeper look at the passage, it can become quite clear as to the specifics of loving your wife as Christ loved the church. But for those that might not have the time at this moment to exegete this passage, I propose a few modern day thumbnail sketches of what Ephesians 5:25 says.
Ephesians 5:25 in the “Bible for Today’s Man Using Today’s Language and Illustrations Because Sometimes I Just Can’t Grasp Being Swallowed By a Whale and Surviving” (not an actual bible translation, but a really neat title), men should love their wives as they love their favorite football team. This is not the love of spending three hours a week watching it, and only when they are doing well. This is the love of watching an entire season of awful, awful play, where your offense looks like it just met each other that morning and the defense does a great impersonation of a sieve. It is then wearing their colors the next spring and summer all the while believing beyond reason in your heart that next year they will be hoisting the Lombardi trophy, even though they have only draft pick (a seventh!) and an owner who has a phobia of opening his wallet.
Men should love their wives as they love their dream car. This doesn’t mean driving it around and at the first sign of engine trouble throwing a cover over it and leaving it to rot and rust in the garage. This means driving it with pride, washing, waxing and tuning it regularly, and at the first sign of engine trouble diagnosing the problem and proceeding immediately to repair the situation before it becomes a major problem.
Men should love their wives as they love food. This doesn’t mean constantly having their favorite bratwurst and beer for three meals and a snack each day. This means having their favorite food, but also keeping variety in their meals so that they can not only enjoy what they love but have a healthy and vibrant diet. Now variety doesn’t mean changing the type of mustard on the bratwurst each day. It means occasionally having to eat the squash and broccoli that you would otherwise consider decoration, but that you know is going to be beneficial in the long run.
Men should love their wives as they love watching things explode. Make no mistake, somewhere in every man is the desire to watch stuff blow up. Why do you think there are so many awful, awful summer blockbusters made that have no coherent story but two hours worth of explosions? Because regardless of the story, if there’s stuff blowing up, men will watch it. This doesn’t mean that we are to love our wives to the point that they blow up at us. On the contrary, we are to love our wives so that we can put out the fires, calm them and comfort them. Then when we are a safe distance away we can watch them explode!
Men are to love their wives as they love electronics. This doesn’t mean that they insist on the high definition television that has the most bells and whistles and is outrageously priced. This means that men are to understand the high definition television they get. They are to read the manual, know what each button does, and understand when the right time is to push certain buttons and when the wrong time is to push certain buttons. Because the last thing you want to do is be watching your wedding video and accidentally hit the record button and tape over it with the newest episode of Bass Masters. At least that reference would make more sense if we were in 1989 and using a VCR.
Finally, men are to love women as women love the church. You ever notice how a woman loves to get dressed up for a church service, insisting that they are made up from head to toe. Ask any man, and he will probably assure you that Jesus is just fine with his wranglers and sleeveless T-shirt. But men should love women so much so that even though Jesus would be fine with the wranglers and sleeveless T, they insist that they wear their finest suit, because nothing less will suffice for his wonderful bride.
Ephesians 5:25 goes on to enumerate on ways men should love their wives as Christ loved the church. It tells men that they are to be constantly in the Word so as to be able to bring the Word to their wives and with it grow together. Men are to present themselves to their wives in a manner that is upright and holy, and in doing so they may exhibit the characteristics of Christ. Most of all, men are to love their wives as themselves. People tend to love themselves more than any other person, and if men can love their wives as much as they love themselves, then half the battle is already won.
There are an innumerable number of ways that men can show little or no love to their wives. The Ephesians challenge for men is to show their wives love in the way that Christ prescribed. It is to show them that there is a love for them that is greater than for anyone else on earth, and greater than even for the husbands own self. If nothing else, it is to show a love as great as for their favorite football team.
No comments:
Post a Comment