IT'S A MATTER OF SUBMISSION

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

Ephesians 5:21-27

The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband.

1 Corinthians 7:3

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

December 12th, 1992. On this day, 16 years ago, Grace and I exchanged vows at David Adams Memorial Chapel on Norfolk Naval Base. It was a magical day, one that we will forever cherish as the Lord ordained and consummated our relationship with one another…and He has blessed us ever since.

Not that it has always been easy. Making a marriage good is hard work because there are specific duties to perform, duties that Satan is always trying to meddle in so we might fail in meeting our responsibilities…responsibilities that we only need to go to Ephesians, Chapter 5, to see.

God's word tells us that we are first to "Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ".

Submit to one another. That means that you don't think of your self as better than another…that you are willing to surrender and sacrifice for them to meet their needs…just as Jesus Christ did for us. Yes…if we are to respect Christ…to show Him proper reverence…then we had better strive to live as He did and submission is a great place to start. Submit to God first and one will easily submit to others as well.

Once we're in the mindset of submission, then we're ready to fulfill our marital duties as husband and wife. Before we continue in Ephesians, Chapter 5, we need to understand the context in which these words were written because this passage gets abused by people who twist it to meet their desires vice God's.

In the days of biblical Ephesus, men treated women and children badly. In marriage, wives and children were treated worse than slaves were. A husband would leave home for days on end but when they returned, the wife and child were expected to wait on them hand and foot, not expecting any love or appreciation in return…mostly because there would be none.

So when Paul writes, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord…For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior…Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything", he is not telling the wives to do anything that they weren't already doing. They were already submitting to their husbands in every way. No…this passage was all about the men of Ephesus…and in turn, many men today as well who want women to do all the submitting while refusing to submit themselves.

Paul told the men of Ephesus…and men today as well…"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless…In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself".

Love your wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy.

These words had to rock the world of the men of Ephesus because they were in no way treating their wives as Christ loved the church. Maybe these words rock your world as well. For to love as Christ loved the church means that we must be willing to sacrifice everything for our wives…to self sacrifice and submit…to be willing to love in a way that says, I would be willing to die for you if that's what is needed".

For 16 years, Grace and I have lived these words of scripture and we have found more joy than we could ever imagine…all because of our obedience to God's word and, with that, the blessing of a loving, submissive relationship with the Father first and then with one another. Through it all, we both share a deep reverence and love for our Savior Jesus.

My prayer for all marriages is that they might be as great as ours is and has been. And the good news is that they can be. It's a matter of submission. Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

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