The Marriage Covenant

PART 3

(This writing has been transcribed from a recorded message given by Bishop Gary S. Brooks in 1999 and has been edited for content to make for easier reading and clarification)

Scripture text from Ephesians 5:17-33 KJV

Index

Love Defined

A Husband Subjects Himself by Loving as Christ

See Her as Christ Does His Own Bride

Men are Indebted to Love Their Wife as Their Own Body

Love Defined

The original Greek language, here in this verse (25), describes the word love for us better than our English definition does. Agapeo shows the kind of love that God has. It’s a love that is pure and without condition. It’s a love that will never cease and will never compromise. It’s a love that says, “No matter what you do to me, you can’t stop me from loving you!” That’s the kind of love that God loves us with. That’s the kind of love that shows that His mind is made up to love us always and without end. What I also want you to know today is that God loves us greater than just His Mind being made up because the Greek definition of the word love includes another Greek word, which is phileo. This is the kind of love that you would have as an intimate love for a brother or a dear friend… a friendship love. It’s a love that’s of the heart. It’s a love that is full of passion. It’s a passionate and heart-felt love that connects you with someone else from your heart, your mind, your feelings, your will, your emotions and your intellect. That’s how Christ loves His Church. His mind is made up forever and He is forever connected to us from His heart. And there’s nothing that we can do to separate ourselves from the love of God!

A Husband Subjects Himself by Loving as Christ

You see, this is how husbands ought to go into marriages. His mind must be made up and says to his bride that there is nothing that she can do to separate you from loving her. But, at the same time, your heart is in it with deep passionate feelings. Your motives are pure and righteous and always will be. I want you to know that this is how the Lord is towards all of us because, whether we understand it or not, we are His Bride and this is how feels about us. His Mind is made up. He loves us with a pure and righteous love. His Heart is in His love towards every one of us that are in Christ. His Heart with His deep and passionate feelings is willingly and joyfully connected to you. He weeps over you when you go through hardships. He rejoices with you when you are glad. This is the kind of love that a husband should give to his wife!

We must understand then, that Jesus Christ though being the Lord and the Head of the Church, that this is how He has subjected Himself to us… by loving us; by sacrificially giving Himself for us and by giving His life to us! Because we, as a people, now listen, we mess up every single day. But He continues to subject Himself, and to give of Himself daily, in His great love for us, yet without compromising righteousness. His love still says, “I still love you and will continue to love you anyhow.” Where a husband is having difficulty in loving his wife, as Christ, is by not knowing, accepting and experiencing Christ’s heart changing love in his own life, and allowing this kind of love to flow through him to embrace his wife. Christ is so deeply moved in His Heart of love and He desires an intimate relationship with His Bride. That is Whom we reflect as a husband and how we love our wife as Christ does the Church.

See Her as Christ Does His Own Bride

((Eph 5:25-26) Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. All that simply means is that every time we are under the sound of His Word, He is continually purifying and consecrating us for greater intimacy with Himself. (Verse 27) That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. You know for most young husbands, when you first got married to your wife, she could do no wrong. There was no spot in her. There was no wrinkle with her, and you took joy in exhibiting her and presenting her, saying, “This is my bride!” And that is how the Lord’s heart is with His Church, His Bride. He is washing us by His Word that there would be no spot and no defect in His Church in any place. He is removing all the wrinkles and that simply means all the issues of blood… all the issues that man has about serving God, That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. His desire is to take His Bride and exhibit her in the Earth to say of her, “She is Mine and I Am hers! She is glorious! She is holy! There is no fault with her! She is without blemish. This is how husbands ought to see their own wives, as Christ does His Bride!

Men are Indebted to Love Their Wife as Their Own Body

(Eph 5:28) So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. And listen, men, the word ought here, from the original translation, says, “You owe it as a debt and you are obligated.” So if we are going to walk as men of God, before God, then we are under obligation. We owe it. We are indebted to our wife because that is how Christ is towards the Church as His Bride. He has indebted Himself to her to love her as His Own Body. We are obligated, therefore, to love our wife as our own body. It’s the same word love I talked about before but now to love our wife as we do our own body! And he that loves his wife is loving himself. Do you see how simple that is now? If your wife has become your body, then he who loves himself loves his own body. And then he goes on to say (verse 29) for no man ever yet hated his own flesh. Men, what do we do with our own bodies? Do we slap it around? Do we beat it up? Do we tell it how worthless you are? How ugly you are? We don’t do that to our own bodies! Do we abuse our own selves? If we do, we have a real problem. But men usually do not intentionally abuse their own bodies. 

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