“Look at the characteristics of our Lord’s attitude towards his bride, the church. He loves her: ‘even as Christ loved the church’. What an eloquent expression! He loved her in spite of her unworthiness, He loved her in spite of her deficiencies. Notice what He has to do for her. She needs to be washed, she needs to be cleansed. He saw her in her rags, in her wildness; but he loved her. That is the height of the doctrine of salvation. He loved us, not because of anything in us; He loved us in spite of what was in us, ‘while we were yet sinners’. He loved the ungodly, ‘while we were yet enemies’. In all our unworthiness and vileness He loved us. He loved the church, not because she was glorious and beautiful – no, but that He might make her such. Take note of the doctrine, and see what it has to say to husbands. A husband comes up against deficiencies, difficulties, things he feels he can criticize in his wife, but he is to love her ‘as Christ loved the church’. That is the kind of love he must show.”

-D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones (Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work)

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones. Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home and Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg 139. Baker Books: Grand Rapids, MI. October 2003.

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