The woman was created by God with special hands on care, which signified her special nature as a creature made in the image of God. Someone has written, The woman has had a long history of being trampled on. This has especially been the case in heathen civilizations. She has differed little from the cattle that a man owned. Even in the church the notion has prevailed with some that the wife is a lowly creature, fit to bear whatever abuse the man might pour on her. Men have disdained their wives as if this were true piety, because the man is the head of the wife. Every such notion and practice is cut off by the account of the womans creation in a position of high honor. The woman was created not from the dust of the earth, but out of the very substance of man. Adam recognized her as bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. Jesus emphasized this truth and its implications: And He said, Have you not read that He who made them in the beginning made them male and female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together let not man separate. (Matt. 19:4-5) This mysterious and intimate union which God designed between husband and wife is the reason that the dissolution of marriage, whether by divorce or by death, is such a painful and devastating experience. The separation of a husband and wife is like the severing of a part of the body.This truth also has important implications for how husbands and wives are to treat one another. Marriage was instituted to fully manifest the image of God. Thus we read in Genesis 1:27. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. The union of men and women is therefore put forth in the Scriptures as a mirror, or image, or the relationship between God and His people. In the Old Testament Israel is the bride that He betrothed to Himself, and in the New Testament portrays the church as the Bride of Christ. This truth forms the basis of Pauls commands to Christian husbands and wives concerning their duties towards one another: Wives, submit to your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (Eph. 5:22-24). Elsewhere, wives are told to be obedient to their husbands. The reason for this submission and obedience, according to the Scriptures, is that the wife is to be a living illustration of the Church in its submission to Christ. When a wife refuses to live in submission to her husband, this picture of the Churches relationship to Christ is distorted before the world. True religion, which is pleasing to God, is obedience which flows from the humble submission of the heart. Anything less than this in religion is hypocrisy. Likewise, that which pleases the Lord, and illustrates the beautiful relationship between Christ and His church, is the humble submission of the heart of a wife to her husband, which results in outward obedience to his will. Let all your conduct as a wife, therefore, be governed by this understanding...you represent before God, before your husband, and before the world the humble character of the Church in relation to Jesus Christ. Now to the husband Paul writes: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the Word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes it and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. (Eph. 5:25-29). Here we find the husband stands not in the place of the church, but in the place of Christ as he relates to his wife. Immediately, the sinful pride of man begins to assert itself! This is wonderful! That means that I am the head! I am the boss! I give the orders and she must do what I say! But wait! The Word does not say, Husbands, rule your wives as Christ rules the church. It says, Husbands, LOVE your wives as Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for her. The first thing that we must understand is that love is not put forth here as a feeling or emotion. The world defines love in this way, but the Bible speaks of love not in terms of feeling, but of action. Love does this and love does not do that for the promotion of the good of its object. When God says, Husbands love your wives, He is not commanding you to feel a certain way toward them...He is commanding you to ACT in a certain way toward them, regardless of how you feel! And how did Christ show His love for the church by His actions? For even the Son of man did not come to be served...BUT TO SERVE...and to give His life a ransom for many. (Mark 10:45). Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down ones life for his friends. (John 15:13). He was willing to sacrifice everything for the welfare of His Bride, not looking to His own welfare, comfort, happiness, or fufillment, but surrendering all of this in order to bless her and maker her complete. Such a husband is not difficult to submit to! But a husband who takes the role of a tyrant toward his wife will only provoke her inclination to resist him. What is worse, when a Christian husband lords it over his wife in a harsh and unloving manner, he declares to the world that Christ rules over His church in the same way. Yet the role of the Christian husband, according to Gods design for marriage, is not to press his headship or to assert his rule, but rather to demonstrate it according to the pattern of Christ. He is to love his wife in the same way that Christ loved the church...that is, by self-sacrifice. (From the book: The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert).
Posted on: Fri, 31 Jan 2014 02:59:25 +0000
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