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Counsels for the Church
What is wrong? How may I best fulfill the purpose of my creation?
Ye are not your own; for ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify
God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”
1 Corinthians
6:19, 20
. Your love for that which is human is to be secondary to your
love for God. The wealth of your affection is to flow forth to Him who
gave His life for you. Living for God, the soul sends forth to Him its
best and highest affections. Is the greatest outflow of your love toward
Him who died for you? If it is, your love for each other will be after
heaven’s order.
Affection may be as clear as crystal and beauteous in its purity,
yet it may be shallow because it has not been tested and tried. Make
Christ first and last and best in everything. Constantly behold Him,
and your love for Him will daily become deeper and stronger as it is
submitted to the test of trial. And as your love for Him increases, your
love for each other will grow deeper and stronger. “We all, with open
face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image from glory to glory.”
2 Corinthians 3:18
. You now
have duties to perform that before your marriage you did not have.
“Put on therefore, ... kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-
suffering.” Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us.” Give careful
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study to the following instruction: Wives, submit yourselves unto your
own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the
wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.... Therefore as the
church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands
in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved
the church, and gave Himself for it.”
Colossians 3:12
;
Ephesians 5:2,
22-25
.
Marriage, a union for life, is a symbol of the union between Christ
and His church. The spirit that Christ manifests toward the church is
the spirit that husband and wife are to manifest toward each other.
Neither husband nor wife is to make a plea for rulership. The Lord
has laid down the principle that is to guide in this matter. The husband
is to cherish his wife as Christ cherishes the church. And the wife
is to respect and love her husband. Both are to cultivate the spirit of
kindness, being determined never to grieve or injure the other.
My brother and sister, both of you have strong will power. You
may make this power a great blessing or a great curse to yourselves and
to those with whom you come in contact. Do not try to compel each