Tuesday, February 17, 2008
Lover Boy
(Ephesians 5:28-33)
“Love is a many-splendored thing,” declares a popular song hearkening back to 1955. For the Christian husband, this musical sentiment is especially true. In fact, Paul lists several of “love’s splendors” in relationship to marriage in Ephesians 5.
The first of love’s splendors mentioned is love’s intensity. Husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. Women are not the only ones guilty of fixating on their bodies! Paul states that men “nourish and cherish” their “flesh” (29). “Nourish” means “to eat” and “cherish” literally means “to keep warm.” In short, men desire to be fed and comfortable. (Wives, can I get an “amen?”) Here’s the point: a man should love his wife with the same intensity as he loves himself—caring for her, meeting her needs, making her comfortable.
The second “splendor” of love is unity (31). In marriage, the husband’s life has blended homogeneously with that of his wife. He is no longer a free agent, an independent operator. Two lives are one in absolute unity.
Thirdly, Paul teaches that reflection is a splendor of love (32). A husband’s love should mirror the love of Jesus and reflect the testimony of Christ to a watching world. Christian marriage should articulate a divine message: Christ’s relationship to His church.
Intensity, unity, and reflection—truly, love is a many-splendored thing!
