The role we were called to...
Did you know that the marriage relationship was designed by God to picture the relationship between Christ and the church? Did you know that the husband is supposed to represent Christ in the relationship and the wife is supposed to represent the local church? I never want you to forget that EVERYTHING in this world that God has created has been designed to picture some kind of spiritual truth that He wants the world to know about. Day and Night represent Christ and Satan. The seasons of the year represent the stages of the Christian life. The physical process of giving birth reminds us of the salvation process. And the mystery of marriage itself: the process of a man leaving his parents and cleaving unto his wife and becoming one flesh pictures exactly what is supposed to happen to our own lives after we get saved ~ Christ left the glory of being with His Father in Heaven so that He could come to earth, join His Spirit with us after we get saved, and cause us to become a spiritual being as well as a physical being. It’s called a great mystery because it doesn’t make a bit of earthly sense. And if you think about it, the physical process of marriage doesn’t really make a bit of sense either. Think about it, a man
marries a woman that he has only known for a handful of years at best, joins his body to hers on their wedding night, and they become one flesh through the children that are born to them because of their physical union. It’s a mystery and I don’t understand it. But even though I don’t understand it, I am willing to accept it. And that is what God wants us to do with the whole concept of this duty that He has given to us in regards to submitting to our husbands ~ He wants us to just accept it. Accept the fact that this is the way He has designed our role and accept the fact that this is something that He needs us to do.
Now, having said all of that, let’s reread Ephesians 5:22-23 and 5:33 and talk about what submitting to a husband is all about.
1. It is about understanding the headship of your husband in your marriage. In the marriage, your husband represents Christ, and just like Christ is the head of the church, your husband is the head of you (who represents the church). This is God’s created order of things, and it is something that should not be transgressed against.
What would you think about a church that wanted to have the authority over Christ? You would think it was a dysfunctional church, wouldn’t you? Well, this same thought goes for a wife that wants to rule over her husband.
There is an old saying that goes like this:
“Ill thrives the hapless family that shows a cock that silent, and a hen that crows:
I know not which live most unnatural lives, obeying husbands or commanding wives.”
2. It is about being subject unto him in every thing. And when the Bible says everything, it means everything that would be lawful for a wife to do. Your husband has no right to forbid you from going to church on Sunday, training your children in the faith, or reading your Bible. And he certainly has no right to require you to commit some sort of act of dishonesty or immorality. But aside from these kinds of things, wives are supposed to be subject to their husbands in everything else. What does this mean to us? It means that we are to follow his decisions in regards to where we live, where we go, how the kids are raised, where they go to school, what we eat, how we dress, where we shop, what we drive, how we spend our money, who our friends are, and what we do in general. For those of us that like to make our own decisions about things and do our own things, this is very bad news. I think the hardest thing for a woman to do in our day and age is be subject to her husband in everything. Why? Because it goes against her very nature to be controlling and independent.
3. It is about seeing that you reverence your husband. This basically means that a wife is to see to it that she stands in awe of her husband. The word reverence is translated from a word that literally means “fear”. Biblically speaking, the wife is to fear (or honor, respect, and obey) the will of her husband. This means no usurping of his authority and no mocking of his decisions. It also means making it her special duty to see that her husband is respected in the home as the head of the family.
I want to encourage you to submit yourselves unto the authority of your own husband for
Christ’s sake. Don’t do it because he is a good man, because he is respectable, or because he does everything that you think he should. Do it because it is something that God called you to do. If you don’t, your act of submission will waver and your opportunity to be used by God in a very important way will be blurred. God wants to use your testimony as a good wife, a wife that understands the headship of her husband, that is willing to be subject to him in everything, and one that is respectful of his position, to illustrate something that is very near and dear to His
heart . . . the relationship between Christ and the local church.
---Julie at The Ministry of Womanhood
marries a woman that he has only known for a handful of years at best, joins his body to hers on their wedding night, and they become one flesh through the children that are born to them because of their physical union. It’s a mystery and I don’t understand it. But even though I don’t understand it, I am willing to accept it. And that is what God wants us to do with the whole concept of this duty that He has given to us in regards to submitting to our husbands ~ He wants us to just accept it. Accept the fact that this is the way He has designed our role and accept the fact that this is something that He needs us to do.
Now, having said all of that, let’s reread Ephesians 5:22-23 and 5:33 and talk about what submitting to a husband is all about.
1. It is about understanding the headship of your husband in your marriage. In the marriage, your husband represents Christ, and just like Christ is the head of the church, your husband is the head of you (who represents the church). This is God’s created order of things, and it is something that should not be transgressed against.
What would you think about a church that wanted to have the authority over Christ? You would think it was a dysfunctional church, wouldn’t you? Well, this same thought goes for a wife that wants to rule over her husband.
There is an old saying that goes like this:
“Ill thrives the hapless family that shows a cock that silent, and a hen that crows:
I know not which live most unnatural lives, obeying husbands or commanding wives.”
2. It is about being subject unto him in every thing. And when the Bible says everything, it means everything that would be lawful for a wife to do. Your husband has no right to forbid you from going to church on Sunday, training your children in the faith, or reading your Bible. And he certainly has no right to require you to commit some sort of act of dishonesty or immorality. But aside from these kinds of things, wives are supposed to be subject to their husbands in everything else. What does this mean to us? It means that we are to follow his decisions in regards to where we live, where we go, how the kids are raised, where they go to school, what we eat, how we dress, where we shop, what we drive, how we spend our money, who our friends are, and what we do in general. For those of us that like to make our own decisions about things and do our own things, this is very bad news. I think the hardest thing for a woman to do in our day and age is be subject to her husband in everything. Why? Because it goes against her very nature to be controlling and independent.
3. It is about seeing that you reverence your husband. This basically means that a wife is to see to it that she stands in awe of her husband. The word reverence is translated from a word that literally means “fear”. Biblically speaking, the wife is to fear (or honor, respect, and obey) the will of her husband. This means no usurping of his authority and no mocking of his decisions. It also means making it her special duty to see that her husband is respected in the home as the head of the family.
I want to encourage you to submit yourselves unto the authority of your own husband for
Christ’s sake. Don’t do it because he is a good man, because he is respectable, or because he does everything that you think he should. Do it because it is something that God called you to do. If you don’t, your act of submission will waver and your opportunity to be used by God in a very important way will be blurred. God wants to use your testimony as a good wife, a wife that understands the headship of her husband, that is willing to be subject to him in everything, and one that is respectful of his position, to illustrate something that is very near and dear to His
heart . . . the relationship between Christ and the local church.
---Julie at The Ministry of Womanhood
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