A husband should treat his wife with sacrificial love, care, and faithfulness – as Christ loved the church – not as a servant or someone to be controlled.
Ephesians 5:25 commands husbands to love their wives even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it. Les Feldick teaches that this love would eliminate abuse and divorce problems because a husband would gladly die for his wife. Hebrews 13:4 also reminds that the marriage bed is honorable and that adulterers will be judged.
Ephesians 5:25 — Directly commands a husband's self-sacrificial love for his wife, modeled on Christ's love for the church.
Hebrews 13:4 — Establishes that marriage and the marriage bed are honorable and that unholy sexual activity is judged by God.
Ephesians 5:22-24 teaches that wives submit to their own husbands as unto the Lord and that the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church. Verse 25 commands husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church. Hebrews 13:4 declares marriage honorable and the marriage bed undefiled, but warns that God will judge whoremongers and adulterers. 1 Corinthians 7:10-13 instructs a husband not to put away his wife, and if he is a believer married to an unbeliever who is willing to dwell with him, he is not to leave her.
Les Feldick emphasizes that a husband is commanded to love his wife; this is not optional. He points out that Scripture never commands wives to love their husbands, because God created Adam with the ability to love his helpmate and Eve with the ability to respond. He further teaches that the husband's headship does not mean she is his gopher, slave, or servant; he is not to be a taskmaster over her. Instead, the husband is to treat his wife the way Christ treats the church – loving her to the point of death. Les also takes marital faithfulness seriously, noting that God will judge the immoral and that a husband is not to put away his wife. He says that when husbands have this attitude, divorce problems disappear, because no lawyer would ever be needed.
Yes. Ephesians 5:25 commands husbands to love their wives. Les Feldick calls this a commandment and says that whenever Scripture stipulates something like this, it becomes a commandment. He also observes that the Bible never commands a wife to love her husband; God created the wife to respond to the husband's love.
No. Les Feldick explains that the husband is the head of the wife, but that does not make her his gopher, slave, or servant. He is not to be a taskmaster or abuse his authority. The picture is Christ and the church: wives submit as unto the Lord, and husbands love as Christ loved the church.
Les Feldick says a husband's love should be total, to the point that he would gladly die for his wife. This mirrors Christ's love for the church, who gave Himself for her. When a husband has this attitude, he will not have divorce problems and no lawyer will ever need to touch him.
Hebrews 13:4 states that marriage is honorable and the marriage bed is undefiled, but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge. Les notes that marriage gives a man his own wife and protects against immorality. Paul also instructs that a husband is not to put away his wife.
According to 1 Corinthians 7:12-13, if an unbelieving wife is pleased to dwell with her believing husband, he is not to put her away. Paul's instruction is to stay with her and not leave.
Marriage honorable, adulterers judged
enjoy the marriage relationship. Now look at what Paul writes in Hebrews 13, and he's not going to utterly contradict this by his statement in I Corinthians chapter 7, so you have to put the two of them together. Hebrews 13, and we understand that marriage is honorable in all, and the marriage bed is undefiled.
Husband's love as Christ's love for church
Therefore, in Ephesians 5, "...therefore, as the church," that is again the body, "...is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." But now, don't lose the connotation. Husbands, we are to have the same attitude toward our wife that Christ has to the church.
Husbands commanded to love wives
Now when you bring this into that same relationship as the church is to Christ, and Christ is to the church, between the husband and the wife, see there's no room for abuse of that authority or of the submission. Everything is just so perfectly ordained if we will just do it God's way. All right? Verse 25, now here's the verse that I use for putting the responsibility on the husband.
Husband as head, not slave master
But God has still mandated this husband and wife relationship is such that the husband is the head of the wife. And I've always told my classes over the years that that does not mean that she can be his gopher. That does not mean that she's his slave girl, and that he's some kind of an augury that can lord over her.
Wife created to respond, not commanded to love
But that's how much we're to love her. All right, now read on. Husbands, verse 25, "...love your wives." Boy, that's always another whole lesson. Do you realize the Scripture never tells wives to love their husbands? Never. Oh, I know Peter tells the mothers to teach their daughters how to love a husband, but it's never commanded the woman to love your husband.
Husband's love is a commandment
And she, on the other hand, should not take advantage of that, but rather respond to it. Remember how I've used that word so often? I've taught my classes, and maybe I've even done it here on television, that when God created that first human couple, never throughout all of human history did God command the wife to love the husband. Not once. Not even here in the book of Ephesians.
Husband's authority exercised without abuse
And he writes, "...submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God, wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands." Now I always have to stop there a moment. Now that doesn't mean that you have to be a slave, and that you have to be a gopher. It merely means that the woman recognizes that God has ordained that the man is to be the head of the home.
Husband not to put away wife, mixed marriage instructions
And so unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, let not the wife depart from her husband, and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to the husband. And let the husband, by the same token, not put away his wife. Verse 12. But to the rest I speak, not the Lord.
Ephesians 5:22: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
Basis of the wife's submission to her husband in the Lord.
Ephesians 5:23: For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.
Defines the husband's headship by comparing it to Christ's headship over the church.
Ephesians 5:24: Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Shows the pattern of the church's subjection to Christ applied to the wife.
Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
The central command for husbands to love their wives sacrificially.
Hebrews 13:4: Marriage is honourable in all, and the bed undefiled: but whoremongers and adulterers God will judge.
Declares marriage honorable and warns of judgment on sexual immorality.
1 Corinthians 7:10: And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her husband:
Command from the Lord that a wife not depart from her husband.
1 Corinthians 7:11: But and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband: and let not the husband put away his wife.
If a wife departs, she must remain unmarried or be reconciled; the husband is not to put her away.
1 Corinthians 7:12: But to the rest speak I, not the Lord: If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away.
Paul's instruction for a believing husband not to leave an unbelieving wife who is willing to dwell with him.
1 Corinthians 7:13: And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him.
Parallel instruction for a believing wife with an unbelieving husband.
Les Feldick points out that Scripture never commands a wife to love her husband. Instead, God created Eve with the ability to respond to Adam's love. The clear command is for the husband to love his wife, even as Christ loved the church.
No. Les Feldick teaches that a husband is not to treat his wife as a gopher, slave, or servant. The husband has authority, but it is to be exercised with love, not as a taskmaster.
The husband is head of the wife even as Christ is head of the church. Les says this means the wife submits as unto the Lord, while the husband loves as Christ loved the church. It is not a license to dominate or abuse.
Yes. According to 1 Corinthians 7:12-13, if the unbelieving wife is pleased to dwell with him, the believing husband should not put her away. Paul's instruction is to stay with her.
Watch the Teaching: Your Body Is the Temple of the Holy Spirit — 1 Corinthians 6:19