Hebrews 13:4-6 — Don McClure

Covetousness and the Desire for What Belongs to Others

A couple of weeks back, we had our men's retreat where we joined with Harvest and Calvary of Santa Barbara out in Murrieta. Some of you men were there, and I shared on a Saturday night, and somehow or another, I can't remember exactly how I got into it, but the issue of covetousness.

And it's something that it's a plague, I believe, almost in our culture and our society and the world in which we live. It's a constant struggle, covetousness is. That is essentially, what covetousness is, is it's simply a desire to have what others have and we don't.

Anything that God has given to you is not covetousness, is not to covet, unless God has given you something that belongs to you. You can't really covet or lust after your own wife. That desire, that love, that attraction is pure, is to be holy.

God has given it to you. What covetousness is, is to covet or long for something that isn't yours, that belongs to somebody else. And that is something, I think, sometimes that has almost overtaken our society.

We live in a world that's just almost controlled by it. It's like the whole media, the advertising world is constantly trying to get a little hook into that nature that we have, that fleshly, selfish nature that so easily covets.

It looks at what it doesn't have and it's unhappy and it wants what it doesn't. And it's very easy for us. I had mentioned when I was up at the conference on how that so often you can, that anybody, if you just sit in a room and you let your mind go, it's easy to start looking around and you can start coveting.

We could, you know, I mentioned to the men on how you could be sitting here in a room and you could look around and you could find almost from everybody something you could covet from. You may look at one and say, I wish I had his looks.

I wish I had his hair. I wish I had his car. I wish I had his job. I wish I had his wallet, his bank account. I wish I had his house. I wish I had his portfolio and retirement fund, you know, or whatever.

And, you know, and I wish I had his health. I wish I had his voice. I wish I had his talent. I wish I had his intelligence. And we could almost look around the room and wish we had something from almost everybody in the room that we don't have, that they do.

And how easily we could just look at it. And then next thing you know, you're going, well, I wish I had his kids. Trade mine. And then, well, I wish I had his wife, you know. But then the scary thing might be the guy might say, you can have her.

And then you say, well, wait a minute, she's beautiful. And then he may turn back and say, yes, she is. But if you are going to keep her, you're going to need his looks, his hair, his house, his car, his job, his retirement, and his wallet, because she's very expensive to maintain.

But you can easily look around and covet. You can very easily look around in this world and I wish I had this. I wish I had that. And it's something, it's a plague, I think, in our society, in our culture.

And here the writer of Hebrews tells us there that what covetousness really does. He says, let your conduct be without covetousness, he says here. Be content with the things that you have. I think one of the greatest things that could ever happen in our life where we could almost take and have a real application of this verse within us.

If something could happen within the average Christian where we could, Lord, I want this covet heart, covetous heart to be dealt with and teach me love, teach me genuine contentment with what it is that I have.

And I think that's so difficult because one of the amazing things is I believe right now I'm probably speaking to some of the wealthiest people in the world. And yes, I'm talking about you, not somebody, you know, ahead of you or behind you.

To me, if you got up this morning and you had a roof overhead, whether you owned it or rented it, it's immaterial. If you had a heater that went on, if you had electricity in your house, you reached over and there was an alarm clock there that went off.

There was a light that you turned and went on for you. There was a refrigerator and an oven and a stove. There was, there was a, you know, cabinets with food in it. You had dishes for different occasions within the cabinets that you could look at and decide which ones you wanted to use.

You ended up, you walked out, you closed the door and locked it behind you. You had a key that went into a car. You got in that car and you drove here. You have a wallet, you have a credit card within it, and you are among the wealthiest people on the planet.

But the tragic thing is, is few of the wealthiest people on the planet enjoy their wealth because we all know somebody that has two cars, you know, or three cars, or somebody else that has, you know, yes, I maybe have two, three, four, five sets of shoes.

But Imelda has, you know, 3 ,000 or whatever else it is. There is somebody that has, you know, yes, maybe I have a, I go to the closet and I just say, oh, what will I wear? And the problem is, I mean, you know, is that there's half the stuff we don't even know what's even in there anymore because we haven't, it's been crowded over into stuff or we moved it into boxes or it's in other places maybe.

But we've got clothes for many seasons, many occasions, many outfits. You go to a lot of the other places in the world. You go to China, you go to India, you go to Pakistan, you got a couple of things you wear.

You got them, you know, in most of the world, they're still on dirt floors. There's no electricity for much of it, nothing of the things of which we have. They look at us and here we are, this phenomenal sense of wealth that we have and yet tragically covetousness has spoiled it for us.

Rather than looking there and being content with what we have because somebody else has more, we, you know, we lose the attraction and the enjoyment and the blessing for what it is that we do. I mean, we've got a car that actually has tires on it, they go around and we can get in it and it gets us someplace but, you know, it has a scratch on it or, you know, it's five years old, ten years old, you know, but it, or the, and there's all these new cars that go flying around us and all of a sudden we can't enjoy our car anymore and we can't enjoy this or we can't enjoy that.

Instead of just looking and realizing how wonderful this is that has happened to me. And to me, when somebody can learn the blessedness of true contentment, when they can honestly look at that which they have, it is one of the greatest treasures there is, I suppose, in all the world.

I think sometimes we enviously almost look maybe when we watch our children or our grandchildren on their birthday or Christmas when you give them something and they're so simple, they're so naive and they just, they just get this little thing and it's for them and they light up and then we've got this expensive thing in there, they don't know what you're supposed to covet for yet.

They just enjoy the little box and they play with it and we say, no, no kid, that's not valuable, this is, learn to covet, child, you know, or something. But the, on how so often though, you know, that we, but yet we have to look at them and envy that simple little heart that is so easily entertained, that is so easily happy at peace.

And one of the great things that we have forfeited that we have lost so often in our world is just the blessedness of pure contentment, of just looking at what it is that we have and honestly being able to rejoice in it, to enjoy it.

Hebrews’ Doctrinal Foundation and the Christian Life

That's one of the great things is when we get here towards the end now of the book of Hebrews, as he's giving us these verses, they aren't just kind of a bunch of little add on afterthoughts after, you know, he has been giving us the book of Hebrews that he just kind of, oh yeah, I want to, I want to tell him this, I want to tell him, oh, that came into my mind too.

As these verses can almost just seem to be an afterthought, they aren't. They're almost the conclusion, the first 11 chapters, if you were with us, I mentioned this last Sunday, the first 11 chapters of Hebrews are doctrinal and they want to tell us all that Christ has done for us.

He's better than Moses, better than Aaron, the high priest, better than the law, better than any sacrifice. He is, takes us into a better land, a better place than, than, than the promised land, than Canaan.

He takes us into high and heavenly places. He forgives us of our sins. He trades place with us. He has died for us, risen for us, ever lives to make intercession for us. And he lays all of these things out for us over and over and over again, wonderfully argued and explained in the first 11 chapters of Hebrews are all doctrine.

Chapter 12 is one now that takes it on a step from there after it says that you have Christ. This is who he is. This is what he's done for you. He is alive. He is risen. He is real. Your sins are forgiven.

He is the great high priest who has passed into the heavens. He is the one who ever lives to make intercession for you. And then he goes on in verse 12 and chapter 12, he says, therefore, uh, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witness, let us lay aside every weight in the sin that so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance.

The race that is set before us, looking under Jesus, the author and finish of our faith who for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame is set down at the right hand of the throne of God and consider him who endured such hostility from sinners against himself, lest we become weary and discouraged in our souls.

But here the writer of Hebrews, he says, now, if we understand this is who he is, this is what he has done. He is so real. He is so alive. He is so powerful. He's so magnificent. He has forgiven us. He has taken over our lives.

He does come in and indwell us. He wants to reign as king and present us to God, have us dwell there and seated in heavenly places with him. He says, seeing then that we have this, how that we now, the great occupation of the Christian ought to be looking under Jesus, the author and the finisher of my faith.

That I have somebody there that in wanting him so bad, I'm willing to lay aside the sin and the weight that so easily besets me. Anything that could take my eyes off of the great goal of knowing him, of living with him, of sharing his life.

That here the writer of Hebrews in chapter 12, he tells us, he says, press on, seek after him, lay aside anything that would distract you from him and his, and his work and his power and his life within you.

And here now is the whole objective of chapter 12 is now enter into him, let him take over your life. And now in chapter 13, he talks about if I have done that, he says, then you'll see his heart in you.

The great evidence of the, of the exchange life, the Christian life, the mature godly life is the fact that Christ is now reigning. That people will now look at the Christian and say, I see, I see the love of God in you.

I see the passion of Christ in you. I see the heart of God, the nature of God, the, the, the desires of God, the behavior of God, the thoughts of God. They're on your heart. They're on your lips. They're in your mind.

They're what makes you take tick and here is, uh, these things are there. He then goes on now in chapter 13 when he says, not just let love, brotherly love continued. Let God's love flow through you. Don't forget to entertain strangers, care for others around you, visit those that are in prison, those that have been mistreated and, uh, do these things.

The Works of the Flesh and the Fruit of the Spirit

But you see now that the great issue is, is that if I have done this, one of the greatest evidences of it is, is that I will no longer be living in the flesh. These first 12 chapters now going into 13, 13 is kind of a test.

Am I learning to live in the spirit? Am I really becoming a spiritual human being to where you can see, you know, is it, is it my flesh or my nature or God's nature of the spirit? Galatians 5 19 tells us, let me just read this to you.

I'm sure you've heard it in note, but again, now the works of the flesh are evident, which are, and here he just said there, we, all of us, we were all born with this nature. Nobody had to learn it, go to school for it, be trained in it.

Every human being, when all of us were born and came on this planet, we were born with what the Bible calls the nature of the flesh, the eye, the ego, the pride, the self-life essentially. And it's a fallen nature, but he says it's the nature of it.

But the works that are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand.

And I told you in times past that those that practice such things do will not inherit the kingdom of God. It says, this is just the carnal man. We all have it. Selfish all the way. Everything is I, me, my, myself.

I want, I'll have, and then when you don't give it to me, I'm mad. Or I'm jealous, or I'm angry, or I'm something. And it's the human nature there. And that we all have it. Every one of us as human beings, we're born with it.

We came packaged in it. Nobody should have a difficult time understanding that. The issue in the Christian life is how do I deal with that? And then Paul tells us, well, the answer for that is, in the next verse in Galatians 5, chapter 5, verse 22, he says, but the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against that there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. Here he says that the great desire of the Christian who has given himself to Christ as he recognizes, yes, this is me, adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, yes, yes, yes, I know it.

Don't have to go into it. I understand the envy, the strife, the jealousies, the pettiness. It's all in all of us. But how do I get rid of it? As Paul says, and he says, well, those who are Christ, they've crucified this.

They put to death this with the desire that the Spirit of God would rule. Well, the first 11 chapters of Hebrews are just telling us, here's how you can have a life in the Spirit. Here's who Christ is.

Here's what he's done for you. He's alive. He's risen. He can take over your heart. He can take over your life. He can give himself to you. And if somebody wants to do that, you know, you now have a way out of the flesh.

If you're sick and tired of this old nature, there's a wonderful answer. You simply come. And the issue is, am I sick and tired of it enough that I'm willing to come to say, Jesus, will you crucify it?

Will I, do I want you more than I want it? That's one of the great battles of life, isn't it? They're both in front of every one of us each day. I can either have my nature, I can have my flesh, or I can have the life in the Spirit.

They're both available to us every day, right now, all of us. We sit there. It's almost God says, what do you want? You want my spirit? You want your flesh? If you don't agree, well, I hate the flesh.

Okay. Well, then do you want my spirit more? Well, I don't know. Let me go talk to the flesh and see if we can work this thing out. You know, but we're constantly kind of going back now. Will you behave nicer?

Because I want you to know, if you're not going to get any nicer and do a little bit better and put on, be a little bit more controlling, I'm going to crucify you with Christ. No, no, no, no, no. Okay.

Well, then let's work this out. That's what most people seem to do. That's what we so easily do rather than really coming and say, no, no, I've had a whole history, years and years and years of negotiations with the flesh, years of discussions, years of its promises, years of its give me another try.

And I've let it try again and again. The only escape is Christ in letting him rule and let him reign, letting him take over. And here it is something there because one of the things that said the flesh generally simply is, is that it's very selfish.

It's I, me, my, myself, I want, I'll have the flesh by nature. The whole world is our servant. The whole world exists to take care of us. That's what the flesh essentially is. And when the flesh and when the world isn't taking care of me, what isn't coddling me and cuddling me and entertaining me and making me happy, I'm mad at it.

Or I'm envy or a murderer, drunk or reverie or whatever else it may be that I'm so upset by the whole thing. But if Christ is reigning, then the evidence of it is there'll be somebody there that they find themselves, brotherly love will begin to continue.

There will be that the evidence of the, of the transformed life of the mature life of the crucified life, call it what you want, but the life in Christ will be love will begin to brotherly. Love will be there.

There'll be a concern for first strangers, though I don't know them yet. I will. Uh, and uh, someday here or in heaven that I, that there's people that prisoners that are bound, they're chained. They need somebody to help them and to care for them.

There's those that are mistreated. And here this morning, now we look at where he tells us there in verse four, he says, marriage is honorable among all in the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers, God will judge.

Marriage as a Test of Christlike Love

Now he looks here and he tells us the writer of Hebrews now wants to talk about one of the great and you know, evidences of the love of Christ. It starts there with learning a brotherly love, learning to just be nice and gracious to a stranger, learning to care for people that are imprisoned and in bondage in one way or another.

Learning to look at people that are mistreated. Perhaps though one of the greatest though tests and evidences of a real love is there is somebody there. It's married love. One of the greatest, you know, is that, uh, places of it all here, he says, marriages is honorable among all in the bed undefiled.

He looks there and he says, now one of the great evidences of if the love is really there is that you'll see there that somebody looks at their marriage and their marriage has an honor to it. They have an absolute tremendous honor about their marriage and they're determined that the marriage bed, we'll look at this in a moment, will be undefiled.

And one of the things about the carnal man, the carnal nature, the carnal being so covetous, the heart there, a natural heart there is something that easily defiles the marriage bed easily because the flesh just, I want, I'll have it, gratifies itself in many ways.

But one of the things that protects and strengthens a married love is that when somebody looks there and they have literally shut off all other loves within their life, all other forms of other loves, there is something there that they want, that their relationship with their marriage is so pure.

And here he, as he tells us there, he lets your marriage be honorable among all the bed undefiled in fornicators and adulterers. God will judge there. There there's something there that God looks at marriage.

It is so high. It is so precious. It is so wonderful. But God, when he looks there and he says a fornicator or an adulterer, now, if you don't know the difference, essentially adultery is just sexual relationships that have happened between when one of the people is married.

Fornication is sexual relations that happen when they're, you're not married. And here the Bible simply tells us, you know, there he says that there is somebody there. God wants us to look at our body, whether we're married or unmarried.

There is something that whether I have met the one that have been, my life is to be given to, or I, or I have met them that either way, that my heart and my life and my affections are given to them and them alone and only in marriage.

That simple. That simple. I remember I, one of these guys, I didn't come to Christ. I was a junior in college. And then after, you know, really I, one of the things I'd already known, you know, was the fact that it was that sex outside of marriage, somehow I knew that it was wrong.

And the back when I was a kid, society knew that it doesn't seem to know it anymore. And even as a non-Christian, I'm unbelievably grateful that the only woman I've ever known is my wife. And but the thing is, and not till after we were married as well, but it's something that I remember now coming to Christ there and realizing there that the, you know, that you're not to have any relations till you're married.

And there is a Christian, I can just remember being so bummed by that. For some reason, I didn't understand, God, what are you doing? I don't understand this. Almost having a debate within my mind with God over this whole thing.

How now, God, you created the man, you created the woman. And here you go, you create this young man, you create this young woman, you let them meet each other. You let them develop this attraction. You let them there go spend time with one another as they find out, I think I care.

And then the care turns into desire, a desire turns to an attraction and they begin to love one another. They've obviously, obviously, hopefully seen, wow, they're the opposite sex. That's good these days.

But it is something that, but here is they've noticed that this is a woman, this is a man there. Then they spend time walking together, talking together, sharing their innermost desires, knowing they want to fall in love.

I want to get married. We want to have some children. We want to have the rest of our lives together. You let them fall in love, head over heels with one another. And then here you let them be together and they've got all of this going on within their body and their desires and I love you and then he says, now don't touch her.

I mean, God, that is cruel. I mean, God, to me, I was just wondering how in the world could you possibly do that? I mean, here, God, particularly when you're the one that created every desire, every nerve, every muscle, every organ, every part of these two systems, and you put them together, you let them have this attraction, this love and desire and say, oh, this is wonderful.

And then you let them get together and say, oh, no, no, no. You know, that's it. And you look at this. And to me, God, that's cruel. That is terribly cruel that a God would do that. Why? I mean, that's right up there.

I remember, you know, with pulling wings off flies in school, you know, or something when you entertain yourself. I mean, this, this is, God, that is a terrible thing to do to a person that you would do this.

And, you know, to God, you, why don't you just make them let it all happen? And then when they say, I do, just let it happen, woo, you know, or something, hey, let's get out of here. You know, when it's right, why do you let this battle rage and go on within life?

Why not just give them the impulse and the desire at the wedding or something? But you see, the thing that is so critical about it all is it's not just, it's part of an issue of the marriage bed essentially being undefiled.

Here is one of the greatest tests, I suppose, that there is in all of life. Because you see, a selfish love lives for itself. A selfish, immature, carnal love, I want, I'll have, give me. It can't wait.

It must have. And there it is something that seeks its own comfort, its own pleasure, its own satisfaction. It doesn't care about the other person. And one of the things that has to happen for a marriage to ever work is that a person has learned that they do what is right for the other person, not what is comfortable for themselves.

They look there and what is right before God by his designs, by his plan. And then one of the great tests, I think, that there is that when somebody looks there and says, I don't do in my marriage what is comfortable, what is fun, what is easy, what is selfish.

I do what is right. And one of the greatest tests of it all is right there in the whole process as the relationship is being formed where God allows this unbelievable desire and pressure. And yet he says, don't answer the door.

Don't go down that road. Do it right. One of the things I noticed in marriage counseling through the years is I'd have gals come to me and sit down and say, I want out of the marriage. You do why? I can't take it anymore.

Why? I'm just used up. He just uses me, uses me, uses me. That's all it's all about. You know, I'm just there for him. Whatever he wants, whenever he wants, however he wants it. He uses me in the morning.

When he, from the moment he gets up to loft, he goes to the office and before he gets home and he calls, I want this and use, use, use. I'm just used up and I can't take it. I remember one time asking somebody, he said, well, when did you ever tell him it was okay to use you?

And she looked at me, never. I would never tell him it's okay to use me. Well, you must have somewhere. He got the idea somewhere. It's okay to use you. When did it happen? I don't know. And then I did you, you know, were you having sex together before you got married?

Well, what does that have to do with it? We've been married 15 years. Do you? Yes or no? Well, yes, but we got married. Well, wait a minute. That's when you told him there's a, the Bible says you don't do that.

Did you know you don't do that? Well, yes, but it was fun and we were in love. Oh, it was fun and you were in love. Therefore, now you have the authorization to do what the Bible says not to do and do it gratifies yourself.

And now you started using each other. And so often in many marriages that their, their relationship has been so defiled because they use and use and use. There's a couple of users. They get, I get them from them what they want.

They get back and forth and they're both using and the debate is only if the use is imbalanced, then we get mad. Hey, wait a minute. I don't mind being used as long as I get to use you more than you use me.

And I don't think it's been fair lately. I don't like you anymore. You know, and so often that's what it is. And until people look there and said, you know, no, I don't do what is right. What I want to.

I do what is right. When there's a lot of men, you, when it comes to, they can't, the guy, you know, the football games on and they can't get up and carry in a bag of groceries. They can't put away a dish.

They can't, you know, do something they can't clean up. They can't help. No. Remember, I'm just, I'm preaching what the Bible says ought to be here. I think it's very right to have a woman feel that she's needed in the home, but I just want to move through this.

How'd I get into this jam here? But anyway, how easily we can use, I just lost the sermon right there, didn't I? But how easily we can use, but there is no verse in the Bible that says, Hey, you can clean up a mess.

Hey, you can vacuum a carpet and you can help. You can do your part. There's no verse in the Bible that says that. And let me tell you though, but if, if, if a guy can have this great desire and something that says, I want, I need, I care, and he can be with that girl and he can long for her and desire.

And yet he says, no, it isn't right. That person that can shut down all of those drives within himself. Let me tell you, he can get up even during a USC football game and carrying the groceries. He can get it.

There are no impulses. It's going to be as strong. So often as that one, when somebody says, I don't, I'm not alive to satisfy myself. And if I do, I'll defile the relationship. I do what is right. And the people that have learned, sometimes you may be here today, you may have been married for many years and yet you use each other.

You're in, in, in, in two, in marriage, we're there to be used by each other. Make no mistake about it, but there's a difference there of us being offering, giving our lives to be used. And there's another one of somebody just using, and we all know the difference, I believe.

But when there's something there that we look and we realize I'm used and used and used. But the wonderful thing is we can come to Christ and say, Lord, I want to crucify the old nature. I want this, this covetous, idolatrous, you know, adulterous, you know, fornication nature.

I satisfy me that that human being is there to take care of me. I think many people, if you just go and say, will you forgive me? Sometimes we think that we got a marriage license and that that stopped the problem.

All it usually does is give license for more using each other. Instead of there where we look there and say, no, I have used you. I'm sorry. Will you forgive me? I don't want to go on using you. How many marriages that's retired and we can so easily get used up.

And it's because so often we use each other for our own gratification rather than know I'm here. To esteem another is more important than myself to lay down my life for another. And the wonderful thing that can happen though, is that when we look there and we realize here and we can, maybe, maybe some have never looked there and it says marriage is an honorable, is honorable among all.

He said it's as if all of the relationships of life, you want to look at something there. You're your brotherly love. You want to look at the strangers. You want to look at the prisoners. You want to look at these things and say, those are great loves.

And he says, yes, but among all of the loves, the most honorable of them is marriage. And here he looks at this and the word honorable means valuable and costly. Do we look at our marriages as something that is absolutely valuable and it is costly and where we are willing to pay any price for it, that we would look there and say to have a wonderful marriage.

I don't care what it costs. I, it is so valuable. I want it to be the highest thing I ever paid for in my life. I want to be a look at a human being and say, I paid more for that than anything else. It costs me more to have that than it did to have that job, that house, that car, that this, that, that, that they can look the greatest and most valuable and costly asset is their marriage.

That's what it means. And that I paid the price and the price is the same for all of us. It's the crucify, the old life. It's the price of looking there and saying, I cannot go on and have a happy marriage and live in my own flesh.

That's the price I'm going to have to pay if I want a good marriage. If I want a marriage bed that's undefiled, if I, that I want to have something that, that the only one that I know is that I, that whatever other attractions or desires, I shut them off.

There's many entertaining things out there, isn't there in the world for us. There's other things to flirt with and people are, you know, flirt with, and there's all sorts of, you know, TV and video and, and DVDs and things there to where you can vicariously, you know, have all these affairs that can go on in the life.

But when somebody looks there and says, no, my marriage, there's only one person that will ever be in the marriage bed, my mate, ever be in my heart, my mate. And the thing is, is the flesh has no power to do that.

The flesh can say, wow, that's impressive. That's a wonderful thing. I can't do it. And I have no intention of doing it. I don't want to do it. I want anybody. I want everybody. I want every woman out there.

I want every man out there. I don't want to just have one in my heart. But the spirit of God says, well, then you can have them all and you'll have none at the same time. But when something happens where we look there and say, I want it and I'll pay the price, I will pay the cost for it.

And then lastly, he tells us now, he says, let your conversation in verse five or your conduct, pardon me, be without covetousness. Be content with such as you have. Look there now at just all of the world, not just simply my husband, my wife, and say, this is mine.

This is the person and no other. And I'm going to be content. I'm not going to measure him up, her up with anybody else ever again. It's him and him alone. It's her and her alone. I'm going to be content with them or any and every other thing that is within my life as it is.

The Promise of God’s Presence

But then he looks there and he says, and then one other thing, though. He looks at us and he says, I will never leave you or forsake you. That there, there is a love, all of the other loves, as wonderful as they are.

They're ones that are finite, as wonderful as a married love is, as profound as a family love is, as a brotherly love is, as all of these other loves are. They are all loves that there's only one source of love for them, the love of Christ.