For every man, whether young or old, rich or poor, free or bond, Jew or Greek – there is one, single source of satisfaction and life. That source is Jesus Christ, who says, “I am…the life.” [Jn 11:25] “In Him was life,” and He is “The Prince of Life.” [Acts 3:15] Jesus our Lord “is our life,” [Col 3:4] and He says to each of us who are saved, “because I live, ye shall live also.” [Jn 14:19] There is no life nor satisfaction apart from Jesus. He alone is God’s chosen source. He says,
“I am the Bread of Life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst…Verily, verily, I say unto you, except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you…He that eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the Living Father hath sent me, and I live by The Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” [Jn 6:35, 53, 56-57]
If we are to experience any life whatsoever, we must find it and receive it in Jesus Christ. But we know that all men on earth are living; however, not all men live. May we take heed and beware, lest that which is written of foolish women be true of us: “but she that liveth in pleasure is dead while she liveth.” [1 Tim 5:6] We must not live for pleasure, for ourselves, but for He who died for us and rose again. As Paul writes,
“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: and that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” [2 Cor 5:14-15]
True life is a life lived in Jesus and for Jesus. We, “who were dead in trespasses and sins,” have been “made alive together with Christ,” [Eph 2:1, 5] and so we must give our lives up, for “[we] are dead, and [our] life is hid with Christ in God.” [Col 3:3] According to Jesus’ word, “he that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.” [Mt 10:39] But let us return to Jesus’ words in John chapter six, where He shows us that unless we are eating and drinking of Him, we shall never experience true satisfaction or life.
It is mainly through abiding in Jesus’ word by which we find this life. Jesus says, “it is The Spirit that gives life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” [Jn 6:63] Notice in particular again how Jesus exhorts us, saying, “as the Living Father hath sent me, and I live by The Father: so he that eateth me, even he shall live by me.” [Jn 6:57] If we continually are partaking of Jesus’ flesh, of that heavenly bread – that is, of God’s word, we shall live through Jesus even as Jesus lived through The Father. Jesus said, “for I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me;” [Jn 6:38] and again, “verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He seeth The Father do…” [Jn 5:19] Jesus did not live for Himself but for The Father; through the power of The Spirit, Jesus lived. Through His constant abiding in God, Jesus produced life, not doing His own will, but God’s, doing and saying those things which were revealed to Him through intimate fellowship with His Father. And Jesus tells us we must do the same. We must be receiving life from Him, from abiding in Him. Jesus says to us,
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” [Jn 15:4]
If we do not abide in Jesus, receiving our energy from Him, just as the body from food or the branch from the root, we shall wither; as Jesus said, “if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered…” [Jn 15:6] And as the church at Ephesus, to whom Jesus warned if they would not prize Him as their chief love, abiding in Him in sweet, simple fellowship, “repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee in quickness, and will remove thy lampstand out of his place, except thou repent.” [Rev 2:5]
We see clearly that life is not attainable elsewhere apart from a life wholly dedicated and laid down at Jesus’ feet, apart from a life devoted to clinging to Christ Jesus in loving fellowship through His word, prayer, and His people. Of God’s presence, it is written,
“They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the fountain of life...” [Psa 36:8-9]
But what does this have to do with marriage? Much in every way. For just as Nehemiah said there was “no place for the beast that was under [him] to pass” through the gate, [Neh 2:14] so too in our marriage there is no room for the flesh, for that old man, for that beastly flesh. If we are to succeed and find victory in marriage, the life of Jesus must be flowing out of us, not the life of the old man/the flesh. Even as Jesus said, “he that hath seen me hath seen The Father,” [Jn 14:9] so too we must strive to say he that has seen us has seen Jesus. So then, if we are to produce the life of Christ, we must start first with Jesus’ admonition to us, to continually partake of Him, to be abiding in Him. The only way we shall have life to give our wives is if we are abiding in Jesus’ presence: in His word, in prayer, and in fellowship with His people. Apart from Christ, as we have seen, there is no life, for He is the life. And if we are to live, we must abide in His word, for His words are life. If we are to have life to give our wives which shall bless and encourage them and provoke them to growth, its source must be “The Root of David,” Jesus Christ. [Rev 5:5] For without Him we can do nothing, as He says. [Jn 15:5]
Therefore, let us cling fast to Christ Jesus; let us fervently pursue Him in His word and in prayer, and being zealous to obey what He reveals to us. Let us do this that we might have life to give our wives: that they might be ever blessed by the fruit of our life. Let us strive to produce good fruit through a constant abiding and obedience to Jesus’ word, (and not simply a mundane study, but approaching the person of Christ Himself – as Jesus said to the Pharisees who were “searching the scriptures,” “and ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.” [Jn 5:39-40]), that our fruit might be as such of the groom in Songs and our wives might also say of us, “I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste.” [Songs 2:3]