Main Scriptures: Ephesians 5:25-29
More Scriptures: Gen.50:21, Is.1:2, 1Tim.4:6
So, ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church. (Eph.5:28:29). Let me remark here that only a fool hates himself. And so, if you are a husband, reading this devotional and you hate your wife, you are a big fool. If you ever loved your wife, you are actually doing your life a favour. As the godly husband, you must understand that your wife does not have the capacity to love you because God never asked her to. So, don’t expect her to love you. What God has wired her to do is to respond to the measure of love that you extend to her. For instance, if you give her kindness, she returns to you, loyalty. If you give her compassion, she returns to you favour. If you give patience, she returns to you, humility. If you give her goodwill, she returns to you respect and submission.
So, in our main text today, the Word of God encourages you to nourish your sheep by investing your time, money, and self into them. God wants you to train and remove unhealthy and unwanted attitudes from their lives. God wants you to pay close attention to your wife and children. God wants you to be involved in the growth process of your sheep so that you can make the necessary inputs that will help them become good and godly sheep. As the shepherd over your sheep, you cannot delegate the responsibility of tendering your sheep to another person, not even your pastor. Jesus Christ, who is the perfect example of the good and godly husband, invested His time, skill, experience and resources in His disciples. He spent time with them, teaching the principles of the kingdom. He corrected them when they were wrong and He revealed to them the secret of His power so that they can become like Him. And one of the multitude answered and said, Master, I have brought unto thee my son………..and I spake to thy disciples that they should cast him out, and they could not……….But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him up and he arose. And when he was come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, why could they not cast him out? And he said unto them, this kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting (Mk.9:17,18,27-29).
You have the mind of Christ. He did not waste the seeds God sent His way, that is the disciples. You must not allow your wife and children to waste away. Like the wise farmer, deliberately and consciously tend, protect and prune them so that they become all that God has created them to be. You must see them as precious seeds. You must also contend with the rudiments and tradition of man and allow the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus to influence your action.
SPIRITUAL EXERCISE
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, have mercy upon me for abandoning my seeds to be overgrown with weeds.
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, help me to use my leadership influence to tend, care and prune my wife and children.
- Father, in the Name of Jesus, empower me to invest my time, finances, body, emotions, skill and knowledge into my wife and children, joyfully.
FAITH CONFESSION
I have the mind of Christ, who nourishes the church, and I walk in that light in my dealings with my wife and children because that is what makes me the good and godly husband in Jesus name. Amen.
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What do you mean by “ypur wife doesn’t have the capacity to love you”?
Good morning and God bless you. What I mean and the Bible confirms it is that when God created the office of the husbandhood and wifehood, He specifically gave the job description of both offices. He did that because He made the husband and the wife with differentiating capacities because He knows that the success of the marriage relationship is when both the husband and the wife function in their places. He did not ask the husband and the wife to do what He did not empower them to do. So, He told the husband, love your wife, and He said to the woman submit to your husband(Ephesians 5:22-25). The word submission is essentially to respond to something or action while love is to essentially give something of value. This explains why in John 3:16, the Scripture says that “For God so love the world that He gave”.
IF you read through the Bible, you will discover that the male specie that eventually transforms into a husband, gives. He is a provider. He gives his time, his resources, his life, protection, guidance, provision, his sperm, and so much more. But the woman only responds to what she receives. So, when she receives sperm from the husband, she gives him a child. When she receives kindness from her husband she gives him so much peace and support, and si much more.
So, it is the husband’s responsibility to give all the component of love as enumerated in 1Cor.13:4-7 because that is what God has wired him to do hence He commanded him to love his wife and not the wife loving him.
God bless you sir