Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her… (Ephesians 5:25)

How are we to love? We love in imitation of Christ. He died for His Bride.

What is love if not self-denial for someone else? What is self-denial without sacrifice? Christ was crucified, died, and was buried for us while we were yet sinners.

If we are going to live in imitation of Christ, we sacrifice ourselves daily for those we love. We deny ourselves in large and small ways to lift up others.

The cross we take up daily in imitation of Christ is a cross of self-denial so we may give love. Fear makes us count the cost and is selfish in stinginess—it’s a shrinking of our world to the care of one person… me. Love is self-giving and grows as it is given. We expand toward the infinite the more we give love unselfishly.

How are we to love? We love in a death of a thousand cuts in self-denial for others and grow toward infinity in imitation of Christ.