“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her…”

“Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger…”

There’s more to each of those verses, but that’s where my mind has been camping out since finishing Ephesians. I’ve been meditating on the basic practicality of it all, the simplest form of what it actually looks like in real life.

I’ve learned that theology is usually the easier part—life application is the challenge. And I’m reminded of the other-centered focus from some of Paul’s other letters. I mean, it’s here too, of course, in the most intimate, vulnerable, and hyper-focused application.

Husbands: love our wives wholeheartedly and sacrificially, without reservation, and without offense.

That call is the call of Jesus. That walk, that way, is the way of Jesus.

To be honest, it doesn’t feel like some intense revelation. It’s more of a much-needed and continual reminder. Love God, love others. To love God is to love others. We love God by loving others.

And the greatest version of that, as a man, as a husband, is by truly loving my other. My other.

And, don’t provoke our children to anger. Some words that are coming to mind: gentle, relational, restorative, reconciling, gracious—these are all things that I’m not naturally good at. What I’m reminded of is that God is first a father; not an angry one, but a compassionate one: open, inviting, and pursuing with an everlasting love. And I’ve been given the honor of participating in that as a dad.