THE POWER OF LOVE
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it...so that he might present the church to himself all glorious, with no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort, but holy and without blemish. Eph. 5:25-27, N.E.B.
In the spring of each year, on college campuses all over the land, the tempo quickens. Eligible young men and women, fearful of a dwindling supply, intensify their search for the perfect mate. Many of them later walk down the aisle blissfully content that they have indeed found the perfect partner.
But there is a dangerous flaw in the whole scenario. No one comes to the marriage altar as a whole and totally adequate person. In an ideal marriage, people do not discover the perfect mate, but they can nurture each other very nearly into perfectness. Something of immense power happens to people when they are loved by a giving person. It is so powerful that the apostle Paul could think of only one parallel that could describe it. While he is searching for words to tell husbands the manner in which they ought to love their wives, he says that it should be similar to the way Christ loves the church.
Paul cannot leave his favorite subject. Moving on from his advice to husbands, he pens a rhapsody of praise of what happens to the church when it is loved by Christ. What begins as a band of wounded and obscure people, comes forth without stain or wrinkle or blemish. Even Christ Himself counts them as holy and glorious. All this because they are loved by Jesus Christ!
How infinitely grateful we should be that Paul did not say, "Make yourself all spotless and wrinkle-free; then Christ will love you." He knew that Christ's love and acceptance are not the rewards for changed character; they are what causes the changes--which should encourage recently married persons who have discovered that they really haven't found the perfect spouse!
Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for it...so that he might present the church to himself all glorious, with no stain or wrinkle or anything of the sort, but holy and without blemish. Eph. 5:25-27, N.E.B.
In the spring of each year, on college campuses all over the land, the tempo quickens. Eligible young men and women, fearful of a dwindling supply, intensify their search for the perfect mate. Many of them later walk down the aisle blissfully content that they have indeed found the perfect partner.
But there is a dangerous flaw in the whole scenario. No one comes to the marriage altar as a whole and totally adequate person. In an ideal marriage, people do not discover the perfect mate, but they can nurture each other very nearly into perfectness. Something of immense power happens to people when they are loved by a giving person. It is so powerful that the apostle Paul could think of only one parallel that could describe it. While he is searching for words to tell husbands the manner in which they ought to love their wives, he says that it should be similar to the way Christ loves the church.
Paul cannot leave his favorite subject. Moving on from his advice to husbands, he pens a rhapsody of praise of what happens to the church when it is loved by Christ. What begins as a band of wounded and obscure people, comes forth without stain or wrinkle or blemish. Even Christ Himself counts them as holy and glorious. All this because they are loved by Jesus Christ!
How infinitely grateful we should be that Paul did not say, "Make yourself all spotless and wrinkle-free; then Christ will love you." He knew that Christ's love and acceptance are not the rewards for changed character; they are what causes the changes--which should encourage recently married persons who have discovered that they really haven't found the perfect spouse!
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