Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the Sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

All right, fellas, welcome back to day four on how to be a godly husband. Today I want to talk about how do you love your wife? And the answer is going to be, the Bible says, as your own body. Again, we'll pick it up in verse 25 of Ephesians chapter 5: Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Now, if you're getting this thing right, now nobody's getting it perfectly, but if you are a godly husband, if you are stepping into this role that God has called you to and loving her like Christ loved the church, when you're getting this right, she, your wife, should be thinking, the best decision that I've ever made is marrying that dude. You see, our job, like Adam, is to subdue and cultivate, is to create the garden or the environment in which our wives can be all that God has called her to be. Now, a part of what that means is that we, our job is her sanctification, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word. Now, does that mean that you are to primarily disciple your wife? Well, her discipleship, the washing her in the water of the Word, is your responsibility, but it might not be your duty. But what this means is you do whatever it takes to make sure that she gets what she needs, that she is put in the right environment to grow in her relationship with God. Now, one of the things that you could do immediately is this. I've mentioned this before, but I'll mention it again, is that you could start praying for your wife out loud every day. Okay? That you ask your wife before you go to bed at night, how can I pray for you? She's gonna say words. You listen to those words, you hold her hand and you pray out loud over her. Another way you could do this is you could pray Bible verses over your wife. That's a part of it. Now, Paul's gonna get a little more specific on how we are to love our wives. In verse 28, he says, in the same way, husbands should love their 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. That means provision and protection, just as Christ does the church. Here's what this means. First and foremost, to love your wife is to love you because the two of you have become one. Now, Paul says, though, there is more than simple provision and protection. That is the bare minimum. I mean, bears provide that for their families, and so there's a little higher calling in what it means to be a husband. And so Paul says this, it's very interesting. He says, fellas, the way that you need to love your wife is the way that you've learned to love your own body. And he says, no one hates their own flesh. Now, here's the thing: I don't know a woman on the planet, like my wife is gorgeous, and there's all kinds of things about her body that she hates. But every dude I know, I don't care how fat, out of shape, and hairy you are, every dude I know thinks very highly of their own flesh. I mean, you let some fat guy catch a right reflection in the hubcap of his pickup truck, and he and he's like, look at there, still got it, right? Now, here's the thing. The day you got married, the day you got married, if you're a married man, you had become an expert on how to take care of you. And I don't even mean this, this isn't a negative thing, but your whole life, you had learned how to take care of your wants and needs. And so the Bible says your new job is to learn to take care of her wants and needs the way that you've learned to take care of your own wants and needs. And I know what you're saying, but Pastor, they're complicated. Okay, I get it. But you figure out complicated things all the time. I mean, you figure out, like, you know, when the rut is, or when the turkeys are gobbling, or when the fish are biting, or whatever it is that you want to find out, you find out. And so that we, Peter says, we are to become a student of our wives, and that we are to learn to take care of her wants and her needs in order that we demonstrate value and love towards her. Here's the illustration. Here's what it looks like to learn to love your wife like you've learned to love your own body. When you're a single guy, even if you're married, but you when you learn to take care of yourself, you were driving down the road in your truck, and when you get thirsty, what do you do? First and foremost, nobody has to tell you you're thirsty. You know you're thirsty. And then you know what you do? You do something about it. You pull your truck over and you get with you what you like to drink every single time. Why? Because you know what you want and you know what you need. Your new job is to study your wife, to become a student of your wife, to love her, to value her, to respect her so much that you learn with honestly, very little clues sometimes what she wants and what she needs for the sake of loving her the way you've learned to take care of your own wants and needs, because this is what it means to be a husband. It means that you love her, you cherish her, you nourish her, that you do for her what you've learned to do for you, to do whatever it takes to put action to meeting her wants and needs. That's how you love your wife.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Before you go, if you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five star rating and review. Stay sharp.