Real Men ... Love
I Corinthians 16:13 says, "Be on the alert, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong." Such a manly verse! "Be on the alert!" Manly! "Stand firm!" Manly! I especially love the second half of the verse. "Act like men." Of course, that is manly. "Be strong" Manly! You can almost hear Tim "The Toolman Taylor" grunting!
So how did the inspired writer qualify his exhortation? This way: "Let all that you do be done in love" (I Cor. 16:14).
Wow! Act like men. Be strong, yes. Let all you do be done in love? Manly? You see, there are many who think of meekness and compassion as signs of weakness. The Bible suggests otherwise.
Men, do you want to be a manly husband? Show your wife you love her.
Do you want to be a manly father? Show your children you love them.
Do you want to be thought of as a manly man around town? Show your neighbors you love them.
Do you want to be considered a manly man at work? Show your co-workers you love them.
Do you want to be the big man on campus? Show your classmates you love them.
See, if we are going to really be a manly man, you have to be transformed into the image of the One who created you, and God is love.
A real man shows love.
"You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus" (2 Timothy 2:1).
Who Wants to Marry a Kill-ionaire
Reality TV in Eastern Europe is full of surprises. In the game show equivalent of "Who Wants to Marry a Kill-ionaire?" a Turkish bachelor, previously convicted of killing TWO former lovers, actually became a contestant in search of a new bride.
(NEWSER) – It's tough to find love when you've murdered multiple previous lovers. Perhaps that's what drove Sefer Calinak to appear on the Turkish dating show Luck of the Draw, where he cheerfully admitted killing his first wife and another woman, the Hurriyet Daily News reports. Calinak married his cousin when they were both 17, he explained, but that after five months of marital bliss, "her behavior changed," and a man started coming to their village. "I was jealous, and I killed her, in a way."
When he got out of prison for that killing—he served four years of his 13-year sentence—he began an affair with a married woman. When she refused to leave her husband they got into a fight. "She was accidentally killed when I swung an ax," Calinak explained. Again he went to prison, this time serving six years. But now, he told the show, he was an "honest person looking for a new wife."
Finding an appropriate mate is serious business. Not the kind of thing a responsible person turns over to a reality game show. And the wedding vows are sacred. A traditional wedding ceremony begins with the cautionary words, "Marriage is a holy estate, not to be entered into lightly but soberly and in reverent fear before God."
According to the Apostle Paul, a man shows his reverence for the divine institution of marriage by selflessly and sacrificially loving his wife, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for her. Rather than give his life for his wife, Calinak robbed his wife of her life.
"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 …" (Ephesians 5:25-29).
Love Your Wives
There is a story told of Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, whose forces once captured a prince and his family. When they were brought before him, the monarch asked the prisoner, "What will you give me if I release you?" "The half of my wealth," was his reply. "And if I release your children?" "Everything I possess." "And if I release your wife?" "Your Majesty, I will give myself." Cyrus was so moved by his devotion that he freed them all.
"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her" (Ephesians 5:25).