By bro Lee Tian Seng
Love is not just a feeling. Love is expressed in acts of concern for the other person.
The Bible teaches that husbands should love their wives just as Christ loved the Church and laid down His life for her. So what can husbands do to show their love for their wives?
Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.
God expects husbands to “nourish and cherish” their wives as they do to their own bodies. To do that, husbands need to look after the needs of their wives and protect them from any harm.
Ephesians 5:28-29 - So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church.
Older women should teach younger women to love their husbands and their children. It requires the young wives to learn and practice love. So what can wives do to show their love for their husbands?
Titus 2:4 - That they admonish the young women to love their husbands, to love their children.
Wives are to keep themselves sober and pure for their husbands. Also, they can express love towards their husbands in taking care of the needs of the family and submitting themselves to them.
Titus 2:5 - To be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be blasphemed.
Love requires giving and serving your spouse. There is no room for selfishness.
1 Corinthians 5:5 - Does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil.
One cannot just be thinking of his or her own pleasure and interests without considering the other’s needs and interests. For example, the husband could spend much time with his friends but not enough time with his wife. Or the wife could be so pre-occupied with her career but not taking care of her husband and her children.
Philippians 4:3-4 - Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.
Many couples fail to understand that love means to show concern and care for each other.