“And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. For husbands, this means 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. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, ‘A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.’ This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
Paul is building on his themes of rejecting sin and living a different kind of life as he addresses married couples in these verses. If you are not married, don’t tune out just yet. We see in these verses that marriage is a symbol of something far greater: Jesus’ relationship with the church.
What does it mean for you to love like Jesus did? Sacrifice. Surrender. Dying and finding new life. All of these concepts guide us in marriage, and they also guide us in all of our relationships (as we will see in the next few days). There is a beautiful picture God is painting through Paul’s letter: a symbiotic relationship rooted in supernatural love. This picture captures the very heart of God.
Here’s your freedom for today: you will find freedom when you lay your self-interests down. Particularly for independent, self-focused Americans, laying down your own interests is a countercultural concept. We are told to protect ourselves, watch out for number one, and do whatever it takes to be happy. God has something far greater in mind for us, and he knows all about it because he accomplished it already through Jesus. Christ gave himself up, literally walking away from Heaven and even life itself in order to rescue us. He showed us that sacrifice and love are spiritual weapons that win wars. Consider those the most effective weapons in your arsenal. When we imitate him in this way, whether in marriage or in other relationships, we gain spiritual ground and have victory and freedom in ways that are not humanly possible. Who can you supernaturally love today?