Love Like A Man - Jesus

Husbands, . . . love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.

Ephesians 5:25-26

Ulysses S. Grant once took his beloved Julia Dent out for a buggy ride. As they came to a rickety bridge over a flooded creek, Grant assured the nervous Julia that they could cross safely.

“Don’t be frightened,” he said. “I’ll look after you.”

“Well,” replied Julia, “I shall cling to you whatever happens.” True to her word, Julia clung tightly to Grant’s arm as they crossed the bridge.

Grant drove on in thoughtful silence for a few minutes then cleared his throat and said, “Julia, you said back there that you would cling to me whatever happened. Would you like to cling to me for the rest of our lives?”

She did, and they married in August 1848.

God created man to look after his wife, to love her perfectly. In Paul’s letter to the Ephesian church, the apostle gives men a simple (yet decidedly difficult) instruction about loving their wives: Love as Jesus loved!

If you want to know how to love your wife and children, look no further than the perfect-in-every-way example of Jesus Christ. He loved us

• —sacrificially when he gave up his own life so that we could live;
• —selflessly as he did everything his Father sent him to do;
• —patiently in teaching the flawed people whom he asked to follow and serve him;
• —forgivingly when he asked the Father to forgive those who had crucified him; and
• —generously in giving us far more than we deserve.

Jesus is our perfect example of love in action. He shows husbands that love is not primarily a feeling but a willing and even eager decision to put specific actions behind the words I love you.

Try an experiment this week. Every time you tell your wife, “I love you” (which had better be more than once or twice!), say to yourself, “And that means I’m going to . . . take out the garbage . . . help put away the dishes . . . bring home some groceries . . . (fill in the blank).” Put some shoe leather under your love this week!