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Husbands: Nourish and Cherish

"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." (Eph. 5:28-29 KJV)

"And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath; but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord." (Eph. 6:4 KJV)

Notice the difference between a husband-wife relationship and a father-son relationship: “nourish” and “nurture” are synonyms. “Cherish” and “admonish” are not, but they are both gentle. Cherishing is feeling and showing affection in a tender way. Admonishing is correcting in a gentle way.

We are to nurture our wives and our children, both spiritually and physically. We are also to cherish our wives and admonish our children. We are not told to admonish our wives.

"Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered." (1 Pet. 3:7 KJV)

There is much in this verse, so please dwell on it. I spend a great deal of time with husbands who do not feel respected and with wives who do not respect. This is a great problem, but it is not as great as the one Peter mentions here—“giving honor to the wife.” Many Christian men do not honor their wives. Pay attention!

"And he answered and said unto them, 'Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.'” (Matt. 19:4-6 KJV)

When a child is born into our family, our object is to rear him so that he will leave us and establish his own family. We are not to train our wives to leave us. The phrase to remember is “leave and cleave.”

Comments

Unknown said…
You wrote, "Many Christian men do not honor their wives. Pay attention!"

That you for acknowledging this. So many wives have been dishonored by their husbands, yet it's an issue that the church rarely addresses.

I enjoyed reading your post, and it's inspired me to do a word study on cherish, nourish and admonish. I'm going to pull the lexicon out. Thanks again! We need more teaching like this from Christian men. I hope to read more of your posts.
5:26 PM
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