For Husbands

As recipients of God’s love, we have all tasted His kindness. Is it not right that we graciously extend that same kindness to others? How much more ought we to be kind to our spouse! Far too many wives and husbands may claim to love their spouses, but they are not always kind to them on a daily basis.

In a perfect world, free from sin, we would not have to handle the difficult topic of divorce. But we live in a world cursed by man’s disobedience and rebellion. In the Garden of Eden where God instituted marriage, it was established as a covenant between a man and a woman for life. Many, many years later, when answering a question regarding divorce, the Lord Jesus stated very clearly that “from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8).

The enduring love of a strong marriage is the committed love that the Bible describes as ἀγάπη (agape) love. This is the love that is translated as “charity” in I Corinthians 13. Agape love is a covenant love that keeps on loving in spite of changing circumstances. It is a mature love, a love that is made stronger by the storms of life, a love that endures the test of time, and a love that is purified and refined by the passage of decades.

For a married couple, effectual and fervent prayer is one of the greatest gifts that a husband and wife can give to each other. The Bible highlights the united prayer of a husband and wife and the importance of covenant marriage as it relates to prayer in I Peter 3:7. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”

Many couples have found that the marriage years slip past with increasing and alarming rapidity. Oftentimes, young couples on their honeymoon assume that they will have an entire lifetime to spend in each other’s company. But the realities of life soon crowd in. Career and home pressures consume time and attention. Friends and family make their demands upon a couple’s time. Even church events, as good and edifying as they might be, can encroach upon valuable time that a couple might spend together.

There are some clear Biblical indications that, although marriage as an institution is limited to life here on earth, even temporal marriages have an eternal impact. This precious truth can be a comfort to those who have lost their partner through death and are now awaiting the joyous day of reunion in a world of endless bliss and joy in the presence of our eternal Bridegroom.

The gift of God to Adam was not merely someone to “meet his needs”—whether physical, emotional, or even spiritual needs. While Eve did meet many of Adam’s needs in all of these complex ways, it is God alone Who can satisfy the ultimate need of a man. Our modern world likes abbreviations and quick slang expressions. But we serve a God Who has chosen to speak to us in precise verbal expressions. To eliminate or abbreviate His chosen words leaves us with an incomplete, abbreviated idea of the wonderful reality that God intended marriage to be.

Psalm 45 presents a glowing picture of a royal wedding between the King and His Bride. Furthermore, although Psalm 45 is set as a royal wedding, Hebrews 1:8 makes it clear that this is a Messianic psalm that speaks of the royal wedding of Christ and His Bride.

There was a day when Abraham laid his wife Sarah in the grave. In the touching account of Abraham’s purchase of a burial plot, he “came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her” (Genesis 23:2). No matter how expected the death, how long the life, or how bright the hope of the resurrection, it remains a sad, sorrowful blow to the heart of a man or a woman when the closest bond on earth is severed by our last enemy.

Have you ever noticed that the word complementary is related to the word complete? Eve was the perfect complement of Adam. She was many things that he was not and she helped him fulfill God’s purposes. She made him truly a “whole man” and he was no longer alone, having now a companion for life. He had found his complementary match, and he was now complete.

Often marriage problems don’t come from a couple’s issues with each other — the root cause is a breakdown in an individual spouse’s personal relationship with God!

In Scripture, we see that the purpose of marriage is something much bigger than just two people — it's meant to be a picture of Christ and the Church. But what's a picture for? Something that created to express the real thing!

Could it be that faithful believers who are serving the Lord, doing good works, boldly proclaiming the truth, and standing firmly against error and compromise are actually neglecting their chief priority? Is it possible that in loving our churches, our families, and our communities, we may be neglecting to cultivate a love for the Lord Himself?

In today’s modern culture, we are bombarded with advertising. Christians who do not have a proper defense against covetousness can easily fall prey to impulsive spending. The opposite of covetousness is contentment. A contented man is a grateful man who has learned to rest in what God has provided for him, regardless of what God may have granted to others.

We might think that we are living in the worst days of humanity, and that the temptations to immorality that we face in our own generation are the strongest temptations ever faced by man. This is not necessarily the case. Young men of the New Testament, such as Timothy and Titus, faced everything that we face today—in a different format—but nothing new in vileness or availability.

The emaciated monk wept bitterly, kneeling on the floor of his cell at the monastery. Try as he might, he could not break the chains of impurity and sin in his life. The pious monk had renounced the world. He had tried unsuccessfully to flee all temptation. He had taken the Augustinian vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In his search for absolution, the man had left a promising legal career and had given away all of his worldly belongings. He had come to the monastery to find peace and seclusion from the world. However, even there away from all evil, he had discovered to his horror that his own heart was full of sin. Masses, candles, beads, fasting, penance, and even painful flagellations (beatings) could not drive lust, pride, and sin from his heart.

Idolatry and adultery were twin sins that hindered the nation of Israel from enjoying the blessing of God. Both sins have underlying causes springing from serious matters of the heart, not just merely choosing wrong actions. Idolatry is rooted in unbelief; adultery is rooted in unfaithfulness.

Marriage is God’s first human institution. Before He instituted the state or the church, God first made the family. When the Creator took the rib of Adam and fashioned Eve as a “help meet” for Adam, He said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh” (Genesis 2:24). It would be wise for us to recognize God’s purposes and His right to determine how marriage should function.

There are times in life that we are called upon to lay aside our own natural reasoning and to act instead upon the command of the Lord. Such a time came for a common laborer in an obscure rural village two thousand years ago.

Every important relationship in life must be built on loyalty. Marriages must be based on this quality, or they will not survive. Leaders look for this quality as a primary qualification for those who serve.