Reading Proverbs – 5:18 Stay True to your Wife
We’re so very quick today to decide that we’re no longer in love. We’ve got examples of this type of behavior in our books, movies and television, and it all seems to work out well there – so if we get divorced we’ll come out the other side of the storm and into smooth sailing.
We think this way because almost the whole of our western civilization has confused ‘feelings’ with ‘choice’ – ‘being in love’ with ‘loving’. Being in love is an emotion: romance starts off with an emotional attraction, which draws man and woman together. Sacrifice for the other is no problem. Courtesy toward the other, even during stress, is no problem. Treating the other with grace is no problem. We want to make a good impression, and we’re willing to make the investment.
Love, on the other hand, is an act of the will. True love is not about an investment, because an investment assumes there is a return on the principle. An investment is all about, “What do I get out of this?” Love is all about, “What can my spouse get out of this?” The focus is utterly different.
No question about the teaching here. In an age when a man and a woman often came together as the result of a contract made by their parents on their behalf, they knew from the start that the union would take work. And into this approach comes this encouragement: for a man to see his wife as the source of his refreshment and renewal; to see her as someone who should be blessed or fulfilled; to rejoice in her – none of which can properly or fully be accomplished if he’s simply looking for the ROI.
Mike
Dave Travis
Rose
Thanks for this great synopsis. (BTW, “No Name” near bottom of your list was Mel Lawrenz, Elmbrook...