MY MARRIAGE IS HONOURABLE
A DAILY DEVOTIONAL
TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2024
NIYI ODUNSI
PUTTING HER FIRST
But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve.
Luke 22:26
Yesterday, we learnt that Agape, the Love that God commanded a Husband to have for his wife is sacrificial and that we are to follow the example of the Lord Jesus. He loved us and died for us when we were sinners. We learnt that if we couldn’t exhibit sacrificial Love, God wouldn’t have commanded it.
In church culture and indeed in many traditions, a wife is expected to serve her Husband because he is the Lord and Master and she is subordinate. In our theme verse however, we see our Lord Jesus setting another standard. For his Followers, Jesus explained that the Master is actually the one that should serve.
Service connotes putting the one served first. In many homes, the wife serves the husband. Her purpose as it were, is to be at the husband’s beck and call. In some cultures and even among some Christians, she’s a glorified servant. She exists to do nothing else but to please her husband, cook, wash, clean and attend to his sexual needs.
But in Ephesians 5:28 we are told that a man must love his wife as he loves himself. He has to nourish and cherish his wife as the Lord nourishes and cherishes the Church. The word nourish in the Greek connotes cherishing with food and other things and to pamper. The word cherish is to to warm up to, to brood or to foster. The word foster means to give parental care to or to promote the growth and development of.
The Long and short of this, dear husband, is that your wife is your first child. When I first heard Myles Munroe say this, I thought it was ridiculous but it is what the scriptures teach. A husband is to cherish his wife and nourish her by putting her needs and desires above his own.
PRAYER
Thank you Lord Jesus for teaching me to love my wife by putting her needs and desires above mine. I receive Grace to love and cherish my wife daily, as Christ nourishes and cherishes the Church. I thank you for your Grace at work in me to help me accomplish this .
FURTHER STUDY
Ephesians 5:28, John 13:15-17.