The pattern for a husband’s love for his wife is a model of Christ’s love for His church. There is comparison also to Christ’s relationship of love for the Father and the love a husband has for his own body. Apart from cultural, transitory, romantic love, this is a broader, eternal, mental attitude love grounded in the character of the one who loves and his knowledge of God. Like God’s covenant love for Israel, a husband’s love will not be disrupted by circumstances. There is an element of substitution in the comparison of a husband’s love to the sacrifice of Christ for His church. Learn the definition of love and how it functions objectively only when it conforms to God’s intention in scripture.