Love Your Husband

By Sandy Ditoro

In preparation for this article, I went to the online concordance and typed in "love husband", desiring to find all the passages which teach a woman to love her husband. I clicked all the passages which contained the words "love" and "husband" together in the same verse. I was surprised to observe that men are admonished to love their wives in four different verses, and women are admonished to love their husbands in only one. In one verse where the man was commanded to love his wife, it also included the command for the woman to respect her husband.

In the verses where the man is commanded to love his wife, it includes the command to love her as Christ loved the church and to love her as his own body. In one verse, along with the command to love her, is the admonition to not be bitter toward her. As I consider these verses, it comes to my mind that if a man loves his wife in the way that God commands, his wife's love will come naturally.

Even when a man does love his wife as he is commanded, he is still going to have his quirks, his absentmindedness, his shortcomings, etc….. God therefore, in His infinite wisdom, admonishes her to love him and to respect him.

Love is not just an emotion. Love is a command from God. If a woman is married, she has no choice but to love her husband if she wants to please God. If she chose a man who fails to remember as consistently as he should God's commands about loving his wife, she, as a Christian wife, will still press toward the goal of loving her husband. We give ourselves many goals in life, and we get so busy pursuing them that we often forget our God given goals. If we are married, God has given us some goals that we must endeavor to achieve in order to go to Heaven, and one of those is: "Love your husband". It must be a priority, and it must be worked for actively.A woman can actively work for it in many ways, and it should always be foremost in her thoughts. She can make choices according to his preferences. She can be pleasant and show him gratitude. I read in a book many years ago some advice that has always stayed in my mind. The advice can easily be remembered because it is short and all three actions begin with the same letter. They are: Admire, Appreciate and Accept. Now won't that be easy to remember! Let your husband know that you admire him, that you appreciate him and that you accept him for who he is; and you are not going to try to change him. I will add one more very important way to love him and that is: Pray for him often, and pray that God will help you to be the very best wife you can possibly be!

...That they admonish the young women to love their husbands, Titus 2:4

Questions

Please fill in the blanks and discuss.

1. "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the ______ and _____ Himself for her,"… Ephesians 5:25 (NKJV)

2. "So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own _______; he who loves his wife loves _______." Ephesians 5:28 (NKJV)

3. "Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as ______, and let the wife see that she ________ her husband." Ephesians 5:33 (NKJV)

4. "Husbands, love your wives and do not be ______ toward them. " Colossians 3:19 (NKJV)

5. "that they ________ the young women to love their husbands, to love their children,"… Titus 2:4

1 Peter 3 gives admonitions to husbands and wives concerning their relationship with one another. Peter then concludes this chapter with words of encouragement to all Christians, including husbands and wives. Tell why the following commands are so important for husbands and wives:

6. "Finally, all of you be of ______ _______, …

7. having ________ for one another; love as brothers,…

8. be _______, be ________;….

9 not returning ______ for ______ or _______ for _______, but on the contrary blessing,…

10. knowing that you were called to this, that you may __________ a blessing. " (NKJV)

11. "Let him seek ______ and pursue it.