-To hate your body would be to harm or otherwise neglect it. But no one of sound mind ever intentionally does anything to hurt their body. Our body is our life, the vessel in which we journey through life and interact with the world around us. No, Paul says, instead, we nourish and cherish our bodies, every last one of us. To nourish is to do what you can and must in order to help something grow and develop and reach its full potential. Parents do that (or good ones do at least) with their children (cf Ephesians 6.4), and of course people (most of them anyways) do that with their bodies. I feed my body, I exercise my body, I clothe my body, I keep it warm in the winter and cool in the summer, I keep it hydrated, I give it medicine or take it to the doctor when it is sick. I give it rest and sleep when it is tired, I give it entertainment and recreation to keep it happy - I do all these things for my body because as it goes, so do I. And because I really do cherish my body. I cherish it, don’t I? This is particularly what a nursing mother does with her little children, protecting and caring for them lovingly, holding them dear and keeping them warm and fed and safe. It is both a feeling and an action. When I feel a fond affection for something (or someone), I tenderly take care of it. I cherish (care FOR) what I cherish (care ABOUT). We all care about our bodies, don’t we? That’s why we care for them.
-Similarly, Christ cherishes, He cares for the church, the assembly of believers He has called and gathered out of the world. He cares about them, and thus He cares for them, for us. He loves us, and shows us His love every day as He has been doing since the day He burst out of that borrowed tomb, since that day He went to and endured that cruel roman Cross, since He humbled Himself and left His Father’s throne in heaven and was born in that humble stable in Bethlehem, since He created the universe and long before that when He foreknew us in eternity. He protects His bride, keeps her and leads and guides her and washes and feeds her, giving her rest and shelter, all that she requires, just as He would His own body, because in fact that is what we are. Somehow, in a spiritual way which we can only really see by faith, we are body parts, members of His body. We learn about this only in the pages of Scripture (cf 1Corinthians 6.15, 1Corinthians 12.27). When He cares for us - and in truth He cannot not care for those who are His - it is as if He is taking care of His own body.
-By extension then, husbands have been similarly positioned within the covenant of Biblical marriage to be protecting and keeping and leading and guiding and washing and feeding and sheltering and providing for and nourishing their wives. Not because she can't do much of this for herself - no, it is to convey a picture of what Christ does for the church and to cherish her as the beautiful treasure that she is. Just like Christ does for His bride, His body. Just like husbands do for their own bodies. Because in essence, having been joined to our wife (by almighty God Himself!) and having become one flesh with her, she is in a metaphysical sense my own flesh and blood, my own body. Next verse...!
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