Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them.
Husbands are commanded to love their wives and not treat them with bitterness, as part of the new life shaped by Christ's love, mercy, meekness, forgiveness, and peace. The love required is as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, pure, elevated and ennobling, and not bitterness, sensual gratification of passion, degrading domination, or using the wife as a slave. That self-giving love nourishes and cherishes the wife as a man nourishes his own flesh, and forbids sacrificing her to passion by continual child-bearing before her strength is recovered. It forbids requiring complete subjection of the wife and declaring she has no voice or will, for such arbitrary rule does violence to the design of marriage, and even when she errs bitterness will not remedy the evil. Loving without bitterness means acting as a true husband and father rather than as a stranger or boarder, bearing the burden of providing for the home and sharing its planning and work, with kindness, tenderness, sympathy, and thoughtful words and actions, including sharing the care and training of the children.
Love Rooted in Christ
Husbands are commanded to love their wives and not to treat them with bitterness, and this loving conduct belongs to the new life shaped by Christ's love, mercy, meekness, forgiveness and peace. It belongs to those risen with Christ who seek things above, who are dead with life hid in Christ, and who will appear with Him in glory. It follows having mortified fornication, uncleanness, evil desire and covetousness, and having put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech and lying with the old man. It follows having put on the new man renewed after the image of God with mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness as Christ forgave, charity as the bond of perfectness, the peace of God, thankfulness, and the word of Christ, doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Kept together with wives submitting, children obeying, fathers not provoking, and servants serving heartily as to the Lord, it is part of the purified preparation for the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness and for being changed from mortal to immortal, glorified, and made sons of God. The love required is as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, with pure, elevated, true, sanctified and ennobling love that keeps the glory of God in view. It is not bitterness and not low, sensual gratification of animal passion, degrading lustful domination, or using the wife as a slave to satisfy passion. Such misuse destroys the respect and trust belonging to marriage, shows disregard for God's law, and is not genuine love.
That self-giving love forbids subjecting a wife to continual child-bearing before her strength is recovered, imperiling her life, filling her hands and mind with grave responsibilities so she is cut off from missionary service, and sacrificing her to passion by repeated painful maternity. It requires nourishing and cherishing her as Christ nourishes the church and as a man nourishes his own flesh, studying her spiritual and physical good in order to present her to God holy and without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. Such love will not destroy either his own powers or his wife's powers.
God has given the man the preference as head of the household, with the wife to obey him, and the husband to love her as his own body without bitterness. Only a man who purifies himself even as He is pure and presents his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, instead of enervating his system by base earthliness and corrupt practices, is fit to stand as head of his wife as Christ stands as head of the church. When that cherishing love is joined to the wife leaving father, mother, sisters, brothers and friends to cleave to her husband, loving him better than anyone on earth, making his wishes her wishes, and giving respect and reverence, it produces harmony and happiness and helps close doors to temptation.
Harmony in Daily Life
Husbands are forbidden to require complete subjection of their wives, declaring that women have no voice or will in the family and must render entire submission. Such arbitrary rule is not the husband's prerogative, places the wife in a position contrary to Scripture, and does violence to the design of the marriage institution. Even when the wife is found erring and full of faults, bitterness of spirit toward her will not remedy or correct the evil.
To love without bitterness means acting as a true husband and father in the family rather than as a stranger or boarder. It means bearing the burden of household expenses for food and clothing and sharing the taxing work of planning and providing for the home, instead of leaving that work to the wife. It excludes demanding husbandly privileges while criticizing, and being overbearing, dictatorial, selfish, unkind, unjust, hard, and unsympathetic and determined to have his own way and do as he pleases. To violate this is unchristlike and inconsistent with being a Christian, bearing bitter unpalatable fruit unlike the fruit of branches that abide in the vine but like the fruit of the wild olive tree, and it brings bitterness back upon the husband himself.
The command requires kindness, tenderness, sympathy, and loving affection shown through kind, thoughtful words and actions, and sensible conduct in married life. That love excludes impatient and wounding speech, and forbids speaking disrespectfully of the wife or censuring her in the children's hearing. It includes sharing with her the responsibility of caring for and training their children, since marriage is a sacred union in which husband and wife serve God together. It cherishes her as his own body, and when joined to the wife leaving father, mother, sisters, brothers and friends to cleave to her husband, loving him better than anyone on earth and making his wishes her wishes, it produces harmony and happiness.
This rule applies to all husbands and wives, white or black, and following it produces Christlike lives and reveals God's converting power. A husband's loving, non-bitter treatment of his wife is among the conduct Christians must practice to leave unbelievers with a favorable impression of the truth.
Husbands are commanded to love their wives and not treat them with bitterness, as part of the new life shaped by Christ's love, mercy, meekness, forgiveness, and peace. The love required is as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, pure, elevated and ennobling, and not bitterness, sensual gratification of passion, degrading domination, or using the wife as a slave. That self-giving love nourishes and cherishes the wife as a man nourishes his own flesh, and forbids sacrificing her to passion by continual child-bearing before her strength is recovered. It forbids requiring complete subjection of the wife and declaring she has no voice or will, for such arbitrary rule does violence to the design of marriage, and even when she errs bitterness will not remedy the evil. Loving without bitterness means acting as a true husband and father rather than as a stranger or boarder, bearing the burden of providing for the home and sharing its planning and work, with kindness, tenderness, sympathy, and thoughtful words and actions, including sharing the care and training of the children.
Love Rooted in Christ
Husbands are commanded to love their wives and not to treat them with bitterness, and this loving conduct belongs to the new life shaped by Christ's love, mercy, meekness, forgiveness and peace. It belongs to those risen with Christ who seek things above, who are dead with life hid in Christ, and who will appear with Him in glory. It follows having mortified fornication, uncleanness, evil desire and covetousness, and having put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy speech and lying with the old man. It follows having put on the new man renewed after the image of God with mercy, kindness, humbleness, meekness, longsuffering, forbearance, forgiveness as Christ forgave, charity as the bond of perfectness, the peace of God, thankfulness, and the word of Christ, doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Kept together with wives submitting, children obeying, fathers not provoking, and servants serving heartily as to the Lord, it is part of the purified preparation for the new heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness and for being changed from mortal to immortal, glorified, and made sons of God. The love required is as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it, with pure, elevated, true, sanctified and ennobling love that keeps the glory of God in view. It is not bitterness and not low, sensual gratification of animal passion, degrading lustful domination, or using the wife as a slave to satisfy passion. Such misuse destroys the respect and trust belonging to marriage, shows disregard for God's law, and is not genuine love.
That self-giving love forbids subjecting a wife to continual child-bearing before her strength is recovered, imperiling her life, filling her hands and mind with grave responsibilities so she is cut off from missionary service, and sacrificing her to passion by repeated painful maternity. It requires nourishing and cherishing her as Christ nourishes the church and as a man nourishes his own flesh, studying her spiritual and physical good in order to present her to God holy and without spot, wrinkle, or blemish. Such love will not destroy either his own powers or his wife's powers.
God has given the man the preference as head of the household, with the wife to obey him, and the husband to love her as his own body without bitterness. Only a man who purifies himself even as He is pure and presents his body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, instead of enervating his system by base earthliness and corrupt practices, is fit to stand as head of his wife as Christ stands as head of the church. When that cherishing love is joined to the wife leaving father, mother, sisters, brothers and friends to cleave to her husband, loving him better than anyone on earth, making his wishes her wishes, and giving respect and reverence, it produces harmony and happiness and helps close doors to temptation.
Harmony in Daily Life
Husbands are forbidden to require complete subjection of their wives, declaring that women have no voice or will in the family and must render entire submission. Such arbitrary rule is not the husband's prerogative, places the wife in a position contrary to Scripture, and does violence to the design of the marriage institution. Even when the wife is found erring and full of faults, bitterness of spirit toward her will not remedy or correct the evil.
To love without bitterness means acting as a true husband and father in the family rather than as a stranger or boarder. It means bearing the burden of household expenses for food and clothing and sharing the taxing work of planning and providing for the home, instead of leaving that work to the wife. It excludes demanding husbandly privileges while criticizing, and being overbearing, dictatorial, selfish, unkind, unjust, hard, and unsympathetic and determined to have his own way and do as he pleases. To violate this is unchristlike and inconsistent with being a Christian, bearing bitter unpalatable fruit unlike the fruit of branches that abide in the vine but like the fruit of the wild olive tree, and it brings bitterness back upon the husband himself.
The command requires kindness, tenderness, sympathy, and loving affection shown through kind, thoughtful words and actions, and sensible conduct in married life. That love excludes impatient and wounding speech, and forbids speaking disrespectfully of the wife or censuring her in the children's hearing. It includes sharing with her the responsibility of caring for and training their children, since marriage is a sacred union in which husband and wife serve God together. It cherishes her as his own body, and when joined to the wife leaving father, mother, sisters, brothers and friends to cleave to her husband, loving him better than anyone on earth and making his wishes her wishes, it produces harmony and happiness.
This rule applies to all husbands and wives, white or black, and following it produces Christlike lives and reveals God's converting power. A husband's loving, non-bitter treatment of his wife is among the conduct Christians must practice to leave unbelievers with a favorable impression of the truth.