Characteristics of Love: Love cherishes
Ephesians 5:28-29 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Ephesians 5:28-29 (NLT) In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
Ephesians 5:28-29 (MSG) And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They’re really doing themselves a favor–since they’re already “one” in marriage. No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church,
Introduction: Calvary greetings to all beloved brethren on this platform. I assume that we study what Scriptures speak weekly to us as we walk with the Lord.
🙏 The Lord will forcefully pull down all gates and doors erected by the flesh against the workings of Holy Spirit in our lives and homes in Jesus name
Eleventh (11th) Characteristic of God’s kind of Love is: Love cherishes.
To cherish someone is to take good care of the person.
Ephesians 5:9 KJV version: For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:
Ephesians 5:9 NLT version: No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
Ephesians 5:9 MSG version: No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That’s how Christ treats us, the church,
🛑 God’s kind of Love cherishes, cares and pampers in nature.
I have never seen or heard of a man who inflicts pain on himself except a madman of Gadara influenced by Demons.
Mark 5:1-2,5 And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes. And when he was come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself with stones.
No one in right senses abuses his body except under the influence of unlean spirit which can gain access through alcohol, narcotics and rejection of the Saviour.
❓The question is why do husbands and wives who profess love to one another thereafter abuse themselves?
They are obviously not bound by God’s kind of Love we have been learning for the past eleven weeks. They must have been united by worldly or valentine’s love.
Note, being a Christian or joined in matrimony through Christian tenets cannot guarantee that God’s kind of Love binds a couple. This is common error we all make. You can be a worker, singer, pastor or whatever in the Church yet know not or experience God’s kind of Love.
🛑 There is an incorruptible seed that is sown in everyone who comes to Christ.
1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Proclaiming to be a Christian or even a pastor is insignificant and does not prevent the devil from coming to you. What resists the Devil is the abiding incorruptible seed of the word of God that MUST grow.
1 Peter 2:2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
1 Peter 2:2(NLT) Like newborn babies, you must crave pure spiritual milk so that you will grow into a full experience of salvation. Cry out for this nourishment,
The growth of this seed by the word of God prevent sinning in this world full of abounding iniquity.
1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1 John 3:9(NLT) Those who have been born into God’s family do not make a practice of sinning, because God’s life is in them. So they can’t keep on sinning, because they are children of God.
Remember that sin is primarily disobedience to God’s word. You can be a believer and still disobey God’s instructions through His word; and death being reward of sin will be inevitable. Do not be myopic about death by thinking about sinners who look good and prosper and do not drop dead. Disobedience to God’s word can bring marital death, economical death and life without peace and if there is no repentance, physical and eternal death is the final.
❓What are we saying in essence? Being a believer in Christ and in Christian marriage without watering the seed in us, and continuing to obey the word of God cannot exhibit God’s kind of Love in our lives but worldly love will be prevalent.
Hear what Jesus told Jewish believers who followed Him
John 8:31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
🛑 We can disagree as Christian couples but God’s love prevents injuries during disagreement. Where God’s love is absent, hatred will surely be present thereby causing all forms of pains and injuries.
Proverbs 10:12 Hatred stirreth up strifes: but love covereth all sins.
❓Do you know that genuine love cannot be bought by wealth? Only worldly love are bought with wealth and affluence. Genuine love will despise or scorn offer of Love through ephemeral worldly things. It is God’s kind of Love that can withstand forces and storms of life.
Song of Solomon 8:7(NLT) Many waters cannot quench love, nor can rivers drown it. If a man tried to buy love with all his wealth, his offer would be utterly scorned.
❓Do you also know that God’s kind of Love prospers and brings forgiveness easily? Repeating matters, which is common to women causes separation which is not part of God’s attributes of Love.
Proverbs 17:9(NLT) Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.
🛑 Putting in mind past offences and bringing it to fore whenever there is disagreement brings gaps in blissful relationship. Heart that will care for or pampers his/her spouse forgives and does not repeat or dwell on resolved matters.
❓ What practical steps are we to take as we walk in love this week?
What need does your spouse have that you could meet this week? Can you run an errand? Give a back rub or foot massage? Is there housework you could help with? Choose a gesture that says, “I cherish you” and do it with a smile.
✍ Finally brethren, you can only cherish, care for and pamper whom you love the way you cherish, care for and pamper yourself. Since Scriptures establish that No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, let this slogan be in your mind, “If I deliberately inflict pain on my spouse, I am MAD”.
📣 WARNING: Do not tell your spouse that he/she is mad whenever there is infliction of pain quoting me; that will NOT solve the problem but aggravate it. Scriptures speak that we are to judge ourselves what is right.
Luke 12:57(NLT) “Why can’t you decide for yourselves what is right?
Therefore, let the spouse who deliberately inflict pain say the slogan to himself/herself.
Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.
✋ Maranatha
