Call to Worship January 10 2021
“Each member of the household has a part in the family life, and the fullest happiness and blessedness of the home can be attained only when each one’s part is faithfully fulfilled. If any one member of the family fails in love or duty, the failure affects the whole household life, just as one discordant voice in a company of singers spoils the music.
The husband has a part all his own, which no other can do. How does the Word of God define his duties? What is involved in his part in the marriage relation? What does he owe his wife? One word covers it all– love. ‘Husbands, love your wives,’ comes the command with all divine authority. This counsel is short, but becomes exceedingly long when it is fully accepted and observed.
What are some of the things embraced in a husband’s love?
One is fondness, affectionate regard. When a man offers his hand in marriage to a woman he says by his act that his heart has made a choice of her among all women, that he has for her a deeper affection than for any other. At the marriage alter he solemnly pledges to her a continuance of that love until death. When the beauty has faded from her face and the luster from her eyes; when old age has brought wrinkles, or when sickness or sorrow has left its marks; the faithful husband’s love is to remain deep and true as ever. His heart is still to find its truest delight in her.
But the Word implies more than mere emotional fondness. The Scriptures give the measure of the love which husbands are to bear to their wives; ‘Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it.’ In the true husband who realizes all that this divine command involves, selfishness dies at the marriage altar. He thinks no longer of his own comfort, but of his wife’s. He denies himself that he may bring new pleasures and comforts to her. He counts no sacrifice too great to be made which will bring benefit to her.” J.R. Miller (He was a Presbyterian minister in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He wrote many works on the biblical home that are of great value to the church at large. If you would like to read more of his thoughts on “husbands,” you may go to the article below.)