Page 157 - Ephesians

Because, you love your feet. Why does a man eat food?
Because, he loves his stomach. He’s the savior of his feet, and
the savior of his stomach. At night do you sleep on a pile of
stones? It’s cheaper than buying a bed. But you love your body.
You are in love with yourself. God uses that, to illustrate a
wonderful truth.

When you get married, you and your wife become one body. She
is you, and you are her. If you hate your wife, you hate yourself.
He uses the love we have for our bodies, and the oneness we
have with our wife, to demonstrate our awesome union with the
Lord Jesus. Everybody is the savior of his own body, and takes
care of himself.

In marriage, the wife is likened to the body. It’s just as unnatural
for a man to hate his wife, as it is for him to hate his physical
body. In verse 30, He takes us upstairs. “We are members of
His body.” I don’t know if you’ve ever thought about this. May
God burn it in your hearts! It’s a precious thing that God treats us,
as He treats Himself. God loves us just as much as He loves
Himself. He nourishes us, and cares for us.

In verse 31 where it says, “The two shall become one flesh”?
Notice what He adds in verse 32, “I’m speaking with reference
to Christ and the Church.” That’s true on earth, and we can
only begin to know that it’s true in our relationship with God. God
is a giver. He gives and gives and gives. ALL we have to do is
receive and respond.

Then there’s a third comparison. He declares that the love of the
husband transforms the wife. One of the clearest illustrations
you’ll get of that is Revelations 21:2,

“I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of
heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her
husband”.