The Husband’s Responsibility in Marriage Part 2

Session 5 | Episode 2

"Husbands, love your wives"

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”. We find this instruction in Ephesians 5:25. Again I wish to emphasise that we should view this responsibility from God’s perspective not from human perspective. As you may be aware the Greek language has about 5 terms to refer to “love”. For instance “PHILIA” refers to deep frienship love, “EROS” refers to sexual love. The Greek word used in this verse for “love” is AGAPE. “AGAPE” refers to selfless love.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Ephesians 5:25

This “AGAPE” is the same word Christ used in Matthew 22:37 in the answer He gave to Nicodemus, when he said “you shall love God with all your heart…”. AGAPE is also used in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world…”. It is common today to hear men jusitfying having an extra-marital affair even divorcing their wives because they no longer “have feelings for them”. God is instructing us to LOVE our wives. He is not suggesting that we should have feelings of love for them.

The foundation of the feelings that we have for our wives should be AGAPE. Feelings of love that are not anchored on AGAPE Love are shallow and short-lived. God is instructing husbands to LOVE (AGAPE) their wives in the same way as Christ loved the Church. I wish to highlight the following aspects about this responsibility:

AGAPE Love is given in obedience to Christ, not in response to your wife’s performance.
It is based on an act of the will, not feelings. Feelings are short-lived.
AGAPE is love that seeks God’s best for your wife.
It is the kind of Love that sometimes demands a sacrificial action. It is not based on good intentions.

A husband that is obedient to God and puts into practice the AGAPE love is a husband that, among others, nourishes his wife by encouraging and enabling her to grow and develop her gifts and God-given abilities.

Presented by

Robert Moropa

Robert is regarded as one of the leaders of the Library and Information Science (LIS) profession in South Africa. He was one of the key role-players in the unification process of the pre-1994 fragmented library profession. This process led to the launch of LIASA (Library and Information Association of South Africa) in 1997. He served as President of LIASA from 2002 to 2004.

Both Koliswa and Robert invited Christ into their lives during their school days. They are trained speakers for the FamilyLife, which is a ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, South Africa (CCC, SA). They have been actively involved in the Family Ministry since 1983. Robert has served two terms as a member of Board of Directors of CCC, SA. In April 2010 he was unanimously elected as the Chairman of the Board of Campus Crusade for Christ, South Africa. He held this position for two terms up to 2014.