The world tells husbands, “Don’t let anyone tell you what to do. Be a macho man. Grab the gusto. Live for the moment.” The Bible’s message to husbands is exactly the opposite—“Crucify yourself.” Here’s how Paul put it in Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for her.” That raises a question: Even a great Christian husband, on his best day, can’t match Christ’s loving sacrifice for the church. What does Paul expect?

Paul did not have in mind an overpowering feeling of romance or an undying physical attraction. Emotion and attraction fluctuate and fade, sometimes quickly. But the world believes the love is over when the feeling stops, which leads to an immoral practice of serial monogamy. But biblical love is far beyond anything the world has known, and that’s the kind of love Paul was talking about. As John MacArthur explains, here’s how husbands are to love their wives . . .

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Listen to the sermon excerpt, then consider this question for the discussion: In what ways do we see the world’s idea of love influence and corrupt Christian marriages?