1 Peter 4:8- And above all things HAVE FERVENT LOVE FOR ONE ANOTHER, for “love will cover a multitude of sins”.
Quite a number of marriages have failed because couples magnified their flaws and mistakes more than the love of God in their heart. Whatever rules your consciousness will rule your life. If your consciousness is filled with the mistakes of your spouse more than the love of God, you will make decisions based on the mistakes. Every marriage must be founded on Agape before Eros, unconditional love of God must overwhelm you more than the Eros you have for your spouse. Eros however MUST be present, because without it, there will be no sexual relationship with your spouse. I defined several types of Love in the first post of this series, read at THE REAL WOMAN IS A LOVE BEING
Dear single woman, if a man is not born again, he does not have the capacity to love you like Christ and this is why you CANNOT marry an unbeliever no matter how much Eros he proclaims to have for your. Eros can fail but AGAPE cannot (1Corinthians 14:8). Agape is imparted into your spirit at the new birth, for a single lady, an unbeliever is not a marital option. Don’t bother to pray to know God’s will concerning that, it has been clearly stated in His Word; (2 Corinthians 6:14: Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion hath light with darkness? No matter how morally good he is, if he is not born again, his good is as good as bad.
This is for married folks, Ephesians 5:25- Husbands, LOVE your wives AS CHRIST LOVED THE CHURCH and gave Himself for it. In these scripture, the emphasis is on ‘as Christ Loved’ , in the second post of this series, I mentioned that you would never know how to love until you understand how God loved. Read at A LOVE BEING 2
The best way to love a woman is to love as Christ Loved the church. How did Christ Loved?
1. He gave Himself for it…(Ephesians 5:25) notice the word ‘ for it’ and not ‘to it’. Another version says He gave Himself on behalf of the church, i.e. everything the church couldn’t do by herself Christ came to take her place in it. This is talking about the substitutionary work of Christ on the cross. Christ took our sins, took the consequences including sickness, poverty, and so on. We were held hostage by sin, the only ransom for our redemption was the blood of a sinless man, so Christ came to our rescue, He asked that we be brought out while He paid the ransom with His own blood. ‘ He gave Himself for it’.
2. That He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word- Ephesians 5:26. This means we were dirty, Christ came to clean us up. If you are waiting for a woman to be perfect before you love her, you need to abound in Agape. Christ washed the church with the most precious thing, His blood. (1Peter 5:18-19: Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but WITH THE PRECIOUS BLOOD OF CHRIST, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.) . The word ‘precious’ in Greek means timios meaning valuable, costly, esteemed in high honour’ Jesus gave a honourable vessel for an undeserving world…..this is love!
3. That He might present to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish(verse 27). The best of a man is what her man has permitted her to be, a successful man is not the one that has made the best of himself but the one that has brought out the best in his wife. A woman reflects her husband, a husband reflects Christ, how much of Christ in you is how much you can deposit in a woman. Life the love of God abounds in you, it will reflect in your marriage, if the love is lacking, Eros with no doubt is in charge, it will magnify your spouse’s errors and mistakes, agape on the other hand will cover it. Eros gives up, Agape believes the best of every one. Eros says she will never change, Agape hopes all things(1 Corinthians 13:7).
Every marriage must be founded on the love of Christ and couples must renew their mind to this love daily to abound in it because Love is made active through the knowledge of God’s word. Even if you are born again and you are not a student of the word, you will never be able to express this love, this is why some Christian marriages fail, they love with their heads and not their hearts.
Eros says the offense is unforgivable but Agape covers the sins, forgives as Christ as forgiven him or her. You don’t forgive people because they deserve it, they will never deserve it but you forgive because you have been forgiven.
I speak healing to every broken hearts, peace in every home and blessing in every godly relationships.
