Christ gave Himself up for us

My next three posts will be highlighting husbands and wives:

Fidelity 

from Stan* at  Winging It where you can read his post in its entirety.

We all know what "infidelity" is, right?  That means that you're cheating 

(sexually) on your spouse.  But ... is that right?

According to the FreeDictionary.com, fidelity refers to "faithfulness to 

obligations, duties, or observances" or "exact correspondence with fact 

or with a given quality, condition, or event."  Fidelity, then, certainly 

refers to faithfulness, but goes far beyond not cheating on your wife.

A faithful spouse would be a spouse who faithfully meets all obligations 

and duties.  Surely that includes sexual obligations, but it goes so far 

beyond that.  True fidelity is an exact correspondence to the qualities 

and conditions of marriage. 

Are you living up to the qualities 

and conditions of marriage?...

Ephesians 5:22-33

... 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands 

in everything... 

...wives (as symbols of "the Church") 

are to "be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord" not in a vacuum, but in the same way the Church is subject to Christ (v 24). We read, again in that light, that

husbands (as symbols of "Christ") 

are to "love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her." 

Thus, just like Christ and the Church, wives submit to husbands and husbands give themselves up and love their wives. (Do I really need to explain further, husbands, how Christ very much gave Himself up (Phil 2:5-8)?) Mutual submission? Sure. But not the same type of submission nor the same outworking. 

But key here is that the biblical qualities and conditions of marriage include 1) the imagery of Christ and the Church along with 2) a wife who submits to her husband in everything as to the Lord and 3) a husband who surrenders himself and loves his wife.

Now, look, these are just a few of the biblical concepts surrounding marriage. My point here is not to expound on all the qualities and conditions of marriage. My point here is fidelity. Marital faithfulness goes far beyond sex.  It even goes far beyond lust (Matt 5:28).  It goes well into how wives are to respond to their husbands and husbands to their wives. 

If you are not doing what the Bible commands must be

done, you are being an unfaithful spouse. 

That is, if you are not fulfilling the obligations and duties of marriage 

and are not accurately reflecting the biblical qualities and conditions of marriage, 

you, my friend, are an unfaithful spouse. 

Probably something you might want to look into.

                                                      *

*Look forward to The Faithful Husband and The Faithful Wife by Stan