“...But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said,

‘This at last is bone of my bones

and flesh of my flesh;

she shall be called Woman,

because she was taken out of Man.’

Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”

Genesis 2:20-25

One of the greatest achievements of a married man is to love his wife to the point that self is lost in the process. It is the pinnacle reality of a Christ-saturated life that is no longer consumed by self-preservation and/or self-seeking pleasure.  A man that achieves this level of high service before God is a man that has attained a great understanding of practical lowliness, i.e. the humility of Christ (Philippians 2).  He is a man that is foremost a slave to Christ and now a servant to others that he may please his Master.  In the most real way, this is a man that has fully grasped the meaning of Galatians 2:20 and is now applying it within the context of Ephesians 5:25.

He is a husband of one wife, a one-woman man that knows the intimacy of oneness that God has declared sacred.  He understands his calling to lead as Christ has led His church.  It is a commitment of life-long sacrifice, sanctification, and service.  He knows that it is Christ that defines his manliness and it is now Christ that compels how he lives as a man within his God-defined roles.  The world is neither his master nor his guide.

At the end of the day, it is not man’s accolades or even the approval from his wife, family, and friends that feeds the motivation of this man.  It is the pleasure and glory of his Savior God.  It is in God’s satisfaction, derived from doing God’s will that ultimately yields this man’s greatest joy in marriage and within every aspect of life.  My life prayer and focus is that God will continually grow me into this man.

To the married men out there that call Christ Savior and Lord...do we share a common aim?  Are we modeling it and teaching it to the next generation?