Torch, Summer 2001

Summer 2001 / TORCH 7 T he first article in this issue focused on what the Word of God has to say to wives. We now turn our attention to God’s commands to husbands. First, the text is clear that the husband must be a lover. That is foremost and so obvious that it almost jumps off the pages of Scripture. The question is, how have we gotten it so wrong for so long? The answer is that too many of us have a terrible misunderstanding of what love is. We just don’t know what Paul is writing about in this passage. Without being too elementary, I believe it would be helpful to review the biblical concept of love. The English New Testament translates three different Greek words as love. The first is the word eros , usually used to describe the sensual aspect of physical love. The use of this term is where we get our word “erotic.” It refers to love in the sense of passion, feeling, and emotion. Interestingly, this aspect of love is the most common Continued on page 9 The Loving Leader Husbands, love your wives, just as 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, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of His body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Ephesians 5:25-33