June 26, 2026 | Be Connected
A Word to Husbands
Scripture: Ephesians 5:25-33(NIV)
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Devotional
In this passage Paul weaves together two intertwined strands. One is about husbands and wives. The other is about Christ and the church.
Christian husbands are called to love their wives in a Christ-like manner. Some would say it’s not fair that husbands only have to love their wives, while wives are called to submit to their husbands. But let’s look at this more carefully.
Husbands are called to love their wives in the same way that Christ gave himself up for the church. What did Jesus do? He resisted temptation, lived a holy life, and sacrificed his own life for the church (that is, for Christians). So, what does it mean that a godly husband ought to sacrificially love his wife? How is a Christian husband to be willing to sacrifice himself for his wife with his life, or even his death?
Similarly, this passage calls a believing husband to love his wife just as much as he loves himself and his own body. This reflects the two great commandments Jesus gave us to “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength’… [and] ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:30-31). This outpouring of love toward another, including one’s wife, is a high calling.
Thirdly, these verses quote God’s definition of marriage first given in Genesis 2:24, “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh” (Ephesians 5:31). Christian unity is one of the primary outcomes of a godly marriage.
Taken together, we see that a Christian husband is to love in such a way that sacrifice, honor, and unity are manifest in the home and community. Truly, this is how Christ loved us. It holds that it is how followers of Jesus are to love their wives.
Husbands, take a moment to evaluate the way you love your wife. Is that love marked by sacrifice, honor, and unity? How is Jesus calling you to be more like Him, in the way He modeled this by how He loved the church?
