Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

All right, guys, all week we've been looking at the 10 elements of a godly man. We're wrapping up this week by doing element five. But before we get there, let's do a little bit of a recap. Number one element one a godly man has surrendered his life to Christ. Element two a godly man is selfless. Element three a godly man strives for holiness. And element four a godly man is repentant. So element five of a godly man is a godly man loves his wife as Christ loved the church.

Speaker 2: 0:47

And so some of you, the moment I got through saying that you're already like, okay, he's going to talk about Ephesians 5. And you're right, that's exactly what I'm going to talk about. Because, guys, if you've done any type of a marriage retreat or read any type of Gary Thomas book or any type of thing that had to do with marriage in a Christian context, it's always coming back to Ephesians 5. So let's go and read that together. Ephesians 5, verses 22 through 33. Wives submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now, as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Yeah, we like that part right, so let's keep going. Verse 25, husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of the water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she may be holy and without blemish. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ in the church. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself and let his wife see that she respects her husband. Now I think like you guys in a lot of ways, so I know where some of you guys went immediately mentally after I got done reading those verses.

Speaker 2: 2:21

But dude, what if she's terrible, right? I mean, what if this woman is awful. What if she's diabolical? What if she's evil? And you know what, guys? I'll acknowledge that. Okay, some women are, in fact, terrible, right? I mean, I have heard, again, in doing the work with Undaunted Life and talking to men all over the globe, I've heard some horrible stories about some evil women that are in some dudes' lives, women that use sex as a control mechanism, right, women that are controlling their marriages and they have sexless marriages. So that means you have sex less than six times per year and they're using that as a power play, right? I've heard about women that have explosive, violent anger, that are actually physically violent towards the men in their life. You know people that have kind of this Jezebelian manipulative spirit. Yeah, guys, I'll go ahead and give it to you Some women are awful, they're just terrible.

Speaker 2: 3:12

But let me ask you this Did Jesus hold your sins against you before being nailed to the cross? Did he withhold his payment for your sin debt because of how terrible you are? Yeah, you want to lean on. All this is how terrible this woman is. What about you, dude? What about you?

Speaker 2: 3:35

And also, let me ask you this how did Christ love his bride? The church, sacrificially. That's what we get. That's the narrative of scripture. He loved his bride in a sacrificial way. And here's the thing A lot of dudes, if you're like me, you're praying and you're dreaming that this is the day right. So this is the day I get to be a hero and, you know, maybe I'm going to have to sacrifice myself for my loved one. And so we kind of like fantasize about this sacrifice one time and just this big way, that's kind of going out in a blaze of glory type of thing. But that's not what we mean by sacrifice. That's certainly not what the apostle Paul or Jesus mean in the narrative of scripture. What they mean is being sacrificial every single second of every single day, not just when it's convenient, not just when she's being nice, right and guys, our first responsibility on this planet, after God and serving him, is to our brides. It's not to our jobs, not to our buddies, not to our golf handicaps, not to our biceps, not even to our kids, to our brides, guys.

Speaker 2: 4:42

I can't remember who told the story initially, but you know this kid was kind of yammering. This dad and mom are talking to one another and this kid's like mom, mom, dad, hey, you know, look at me, look at me, do this. Blah, blah, blah, and the dad stops what he's doing. He looks at the kid and he goes look, if you and your mother were both drowning at the same time, not only would I jump in to save her first, but I would take the time to dry her off before worrying about you. Now some people are like, oh my God, that's so offensive and so mean no, no, no, the kid needed to know. In that moment I am worried more about your mama, right, because when you are launched and gone, it's just me and your mama, and I have to love her in a sacrificial way, right? So hopefully he never actually has that drowning scenario.

Speaker 2: 5:23

But the point was being made, right. And here's the thing about marriage, guys. Marriage was given to us as a gift so that we could fathom even just a modicum of Jesus's sacrifice on the cross for us, okay, so when we sacrifice for our brides, we're getting just a little bit of a hint as to what all of this means, right? That's exactly why Satan fights hardest against marriages. Have you guys ever wondered why your marriage is so hard, or even a former marriage is so hard? Or you got guys that are really up against it because of their marriages. It's because Satan is all over us, because we think that if, hey, if I can't even stay with my bride, how can Jesus sacrifice for his bride, which is the church guys?

Speaker 2: 6:09

So most of you guys listening to this are married and some of you guys have never thought about Ephesians 5 in this way. But I'm just telling you guys, memorize it. Read it every single day when you're on the toilet in the morning, as opposed to scrolling TikTok or sports scores or whatever. Look at Ephesians 5 and make sure you're acting that out. Element 5 of a godly man a godly man loves his wife as Christ loved the church. Have a good weekend. Be back here Monday, where we're going to start with Element 6.

Speaker 1: 6:37

Thank you for listening to today's episode Before you go. If you want to help equip other men for the fight, share this podcast around and leave us a five-star rating and review. Stay sharp.