GOD CENTERED HUSBANDRY

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In Christ, Mark

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

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

1 Peter 3:7

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

Over the past two messages, we have seen the Word of God speaking into the matter of marriage, specifically regarding the wife’s responsibilities, to include when her husband may be a non-believer, and where her true source of beauty will be found if she is a Christian.

Today, we conclude this portion of Peter’s first letter to “God’s chosen “who were “living as foreigners in the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia” (1 Peter 1:1) with a look at the husband and how he is to relate to his wife within the marriage. Look again at the words found in verse 7 of chapter 3:

In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.

In the previous verses, the scriptures made it clear that wives were to respect and honor their husbands by submitting to their authority within the marital relationship. In verse 7, we see where the matter of honor is reciprocal.

...husbands must give honor to your wives.

This means that abusiveness has no place within a marriage when it is lived in accordance with God’s expectations. Just because the wife is the “weaker” party, this doesn’t give the husband latitude to belittle, intimidate, or mistreat her. Rather, he is to treat her “with understanding” as he shares life with her.

In the letter to the Ephesians, we find the Lord adding this and taking this matter of spousal treatment by a husband to a whole new level. In chapter 5, we find this:

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 5:25-28

Imagine if every husband carried this out, loving his wife as Christ loved the church?

You would see marriages that bloom and flourish in love and a resultant drastic drop in divorce rates, that’s for sure.

God centered husbandry is just that God-centered. This means the husband honors God and places Him in a place of authority over the marital relationship. God dictates how things go and it’s His will for the marriage that matters most. Everything done by the husband and wife, his equal partner in God’s gift of new life”, should glorify and honor Him while meeting His desires and expectations.

If you’re reading this and married today, does your marriage reflect this?

If so, then you are living in the same blessed unity that my wife and I enjoy, a marriage blossoming under the lead of the Lord.

If you read this and see where you have corrections to make, today is that day to change. Repent over any sin committed within the marriage, whether husband or wife or both, and then ask the Lord to assume His rightful place, submitting fully to His authority as equal partners subordinate to Him.

My prayer is that you will see your marital relationship elevate to levels of joy, peace, and love that you never dreamed possible. For this is what happens when we put God first...He will make our marriage finish in first place.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.