How to Treat Your Wife: Admonishing vs. Cherishing

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church” (Eph. 5:25-29).

Note the last verse. The KJV says “nourishes and cherishes.”

In Ephesians 6, Paul says that children are to be nurtured and admonished.

Wives are to be nourished and cherished. Children are to be nourished and admonished. You must admonish your children. You must cherish your wife.

You may not admonish your wife. If there is some moral infraction on her part, then you should handle it in the light of Galatians 6:1:

“Brothers, if someone is caught in sin, you who are spiritual restore him gently. But watch yourself or you may be tempted.”

If the infraction is not immoral or heretical, you may not do this, either.

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