And she says, “Oh, what is it?”
“You know the game on Saturday?”
“Yeah.”
“And you know I’ve got tickets?”
“Yeah.”
“I’ve decided, I’m going to give my tickets away, and I’m going to go shopping with you, on Saturday afternoon!”
Why is that funny? Because humor usually has to do with that which is patently ludicrous – such as the thought of a man actually sacrificing a football game to spend time with his wife! The answer is: because of the way men think, it would never occur to them. Why do they think like that? Because we are basically selfish, and that’s the problem! “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Men, ask yourself a question: when did I last voluntarily sacrifice something dear to me for the sake of my wife? You might find it quite challenging, and it’s a perfectly appropriate question to ask. You see, our marriages in this culture are in a disastrous state. Yet marriages in this culture would not be in a disastrous state if they were lived God’s way.
Christ gave Himself for the church intentionally and purposefully. Paul goes on to say this: “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church” (
Eph. 5:26-27). The sacrifice of Christ was intentional. It was purposeful; He was doing it for a reason. In the same way, “Husbands, love your wives, intentionally and purposefully.”
What was the intention of Christ? In dying for the church, what He had in mind was not little groups of people who squabble, and people who go to a church for so long until they get fed up, or the pastor leaves, and then they pack it in, and go some place else. No! Not hopping and shopping around churches. No! He died in order that He would eventually produce out of every kindred and tongue, every tribe and nation, something which would transcend all human barriers throughout human history, and it would be a perfect Church. That’s why He died! It’s not going to happen until we gather around the Throne in eternity.
By the same token, husbands, be intentional and purposeful in your sacrificial love. What’s the intention, and what’s the purpose? As Christ is to the Church, working to bring the Church to her fullness and completion, that I as a husband might be for my wife an agent whereby she is allowed to come to a point of fullness and completion and be all that God intended her to be. “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her; that she might become a radiant church.”