Authors: Mary and Michael Miklosovic, from the Word of Life in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
How Christ loves the church
In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul exhorts: “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:25)
Jesus does not love his church “within reason”. He did not hold onto his equality with God but took the form of a servant and gave himself completely. Totally. He died. And every day, a man must die for his wife and a woman for her husband. Each must choose to do the hard thing; to set aside preferences with grace and deliberation and cheerfully, a little at a time. Marriage is a vocation, a “calling”, a life lived as a sign of the love of God himself, an “all” kind of level of love. Are you willing to leave your home, your country, your culture, your preferences, even your life, to live as one with someone else? This is the call of marriage. This is the love of Christ for his body, the love to which we are called in marriage.
Ask yourself today: How can I lay down my preferences in order to better love others?
Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV®
Copyright © 1973 1978 1984 2011 by Biblica, Inc. TM
Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
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