Know Your Spouse’s Worth to Christ

“Just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭5:25-27‬ ‭NIV‬‬

I believe that we will not ever fully understand how much Christ loves us. We have no clue. The minute we step into his presence, we will drop to our knees and be overwhelmed with the way Christ loves us and tenderly cares for us.  Notice that Jesus cleansed us and presented us as radiant, without stain or wrinkle.  Your spouse has that same worth.

How does God criticize us? Notice from these verses that Jesus does not get in our face and ridicule us and scream at us and make fun of us. He washed us with kindness. That’s how we should confront our spouse.

This was one of the biggest statements that stopped us in our tracks at the marriage conference that we attended last weekend. The way Jesus reacts when we are wrong. He never walks up to us and berates us. He never gets annoyed. He doesn’t talk about us in a negative way. He does not give us the silent treatment. He does not leave the house and stay gone to punish us.

I love that Jimmy Evans talked about the difference in the gardener mentality verses the consumer reality. The gardener sees a sick tree and tries to love it back to health. The consumer mentality sees a sick tree and takes it back for a better, more healthy one. Again how does Jesus see our worth? That’s how we should see our spouse.

The other illustration is the renter and the owner mentality. The renter has foundations problems. There is no way the renter would stay and fix that costly problem. The owner will stay and fix it no matter what the cost.  When we encounter a costly problem in our marriage, will we have a renter or owner mentality? People who are more likely divorce, according to statistics, do not have a strong work ethic and do not desire to stay and fix the problem.

Mark and I want to treat each other like Christ loved the church and knows it’s worth. Next time Mark gets me mad or annoyed, I pray that I react like Jesus treats me...with encouragement and underserved love. Next time I use up too much data accidentally or run into new garage door without opening it(how did that happened?). Mark, remember you are a gardener and not a consumer. You’ve had me too long and you can’t take me back.😊