August 27 - Ephesians 5:32-33

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

One of the beauties of the doctrine of the Trinity is the love and respect that each member has for the other – offering us an example of perfect unity.

Paul continually reinforces the need for unity among the people of God, and uses the example of Christ and his church as well as the relationship between a husband and a wife. There must be sacrifice in order for there to be unity.

Christ gave everything so that he might establish a relationship with his Church. The thing is that until we fully understand the mystery that comes from that all-encompassing, unwavering, unconditional love, we will never understand complete joy in any of our relationships.

When God’s children were at their very worst, Christ continued to the cross.  At this point, most all of us would have given up on them. We don’t easily take abuse of any sort, especially when we’ve done nothing to deserve it.

Friends, family members … everyone is set aside when they act in ways that hurt us. Sometimes all they have to do is simply annoy us.

Christ’s love went far beyond his own emotions. That is the type of love Paul reminds us that we must have for each other. Sacrifice is never about us … it is about the depth of our love for another.  It is sacrifice that creates the best kind of love. It is sacrifice that gets us closest to what Jesus Christ did for the Church.