October 3 Removing the Intruder－Ephesians 5：25-33

It wasn’t quite uncommon for someone who put others’ needs before his own. I recalled an incident a long time ago when my brother worked in a construction company. A heavy downpour was on in one summer night at a construction site, a worker got up and covered a stockpile of sand with a plastic sheet. The owner of that construction site worried if the sand was wet so he could not mix with the concrete aggregate and his job would be delayed. To his surprise when he checked the stockpile of sand the next day he found only a small portion was wet. So his job progress was done without delay. Later he checked who covered the sand and the worker was found. After the incident, this worker was promoted as a supervisor. The worker went an extra mile and he put others’ needs before him. Similarly, Apostle Paul describes in (Ephesians 5:25) “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” Paul goes on, (Ephesians 5:28) “Husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” Paul’s comparison of a husband’s love to the love of Christ pivots on how Jesus put our needs before His own. The worker understood to keep the sand dry so the job would not be delayed, and so he made the job a concern as his priority. That principle doesn’t apply to our daily lives only. As the example of Jesus, each of us can lovingly sacrifice to help remove an intruder of stress, fear, shame, or anxiety so that someone can move more freely in the world.