The Real Love

"So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body." (Eph. 5:28-30)

We cannot experience the real love in our marriages without experiencing this truth. When we regard the body of our spouse we need to have this profound but matter-of-fact realization: "Oh, of course, it's my body." And we need to have our eyes opened to the simple truth that this union includes everything. So that when we encounter one another's sin, "Oh, again here is my sin -- how guilty am I!" And when repentance is revealed in the other, "Oh, at last I can repent!" When holiness appears in the other, "There is holiness even for me!" And with her trials, with his tribulation, "This fight is for me also! Oh, that I should be considered worthy to share this suffering!" This is the real love. In this way our membership in Christ is made real. For, wonder of wonders, the real love is really a Person.

[LH, from a wedding sermon, 2006]