Wives To Your Own Husbands As To The Lord

This ministry is being produced our production consultant Kym Coan. We greatly appreciate this ministry in allowing us to bring this ministry to you.

https://www.godisgovernment.com

Support Our Ministry - https://www.godisgovernment.com/support-us

https://www.godisgovernment.com/shop

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:12

Hello, my name is Paul, and I am the voiceover for a ministry provided to you by Jim Pugh at God is Government called Your Daily Bread, taken from Christ's teaching of the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, verse 11. This is a daily devotion ministry focused not only on uplifting Scripture, but Scripture that will grow your spiritual connection with Christ. We hope that you receive these devotions to uplift you, encourage you, but most importantly, advance your knowledge base of the Holy Scriptures. Today's focused discussion will be on wives to your own husbands as to the Lord. I want to start where the text starts, and here we read in verse 22. Let me read you what the original says. Wives to your own husbands as to the Lord. Wives to your own husbands as to the Lord. Did you notice the word be subject is in italics? That's because it isn't in the original. It isn't in the original. It doesn't say first of all, obey your husbands. It's not that kind of a relationship. It has already established mutual submission, and then it gives you the first illustration, wives, to your own husbands, as to the Lord. This is the first illustration of submission, the relationship that a wife has to her husband, but it doesn't say obey your husband because this relationship is more intimate, more inward, and that is, I think, indicated here by the personal pronoun, wives, to your own husbands. Not to every man, not to any man, but to your own husbands. This has nothing to do with spiritual inferiority, nothing at all to do with spiritual inferiority. There is no inferiority among believers between men and women, none at all. Paul says in Galatians 3.28, in Christ there is neither male nor female, neither male nor female. We're not talking about spiritual things here, we're simply talking about divinely established categories of responsibility. And God has even fabricated us to fit those categories. For the sake of fulfilling God's design, the woman is commanded to be subject to her own husband as unto the Lord. Nobody would argue that a woman needs to be submissive to the Lord. We confess Jesus as Lord when we come to Christ. Well, it's a kind of relationship we have to our husband that is also like that. He is Lord in a very real sense, and we're going to see that in just a moment. Now, I told you that the word submitting is not in verse twenty two. But just to be fair about that, in Colossians 3.18, you have a parallel verse, and the word submission is there. Wives, be subject to your husbands. And the reason it's there is because there's not a parallel to verse 21. There's no comment about submission at all. So it has to be introduced in verse 18, which is why they put it in over here in the book of Ephesians. Be submissive or subject to your husbands. And then, Colossians 3.18 it says, as is fitting in the Lord. In Ephesians it says as to the Lord. In Colossians it says, as is fitting to the Lord, anako, a word that means seemly, appropriate, correct, the right thing. It could even mean legally binding, that's a usage that we find in the Greek Old Testament. It is fitting. It is not a cultural issue, it is not a transient issue, it is not a temporary issue. The headship of man is tied to man's physicality. He is stronger, he is more aggressive. He is constitutionally designed by God to work for, to protect, to provide for, to secure his wife, who is identified in Scripture as the weaker vessel, not weaker spiritually, not weaker intellectually, not weaker morally, but weaker in general constitution. God designed men to be the breadwinners, the workers, the protectors, the providers, the security for their wives. And that is obvious to anybody with an open mind. It is obligatory then, and it is connected to divine design for a woman to be submissive to her husband. To expand on that a little bit, and I said I was going to do this and I will, turn to 1 Peter 3. 1 Peter 3. This is such a rich portion of Scripture, and I know many of you are familiar with it, but we need to look at it, because it says essentially the same thing. Verse 1 of 1 Peter 3. In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your husbands. In the same way as what? In the same way as sheep are submissive to the leadership of the Great Shepherd. That's how chapter 2 ends. In the same way that you submit to the Great Shepherd, so wives, and again that's what Paul said in Ephesians, as to the Lord. It's the parallel. Be submissive to your own husbands. There again is the personal pronoun. Not all men, not everybody's husband, but yours. And by the way, the word submissive is the same word, who potasso, to rank yourself under. And in this case, you do it even with an unbelieving husband, because this is the divine plan. So that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they observe your pure and respectful behavior. You want to evangelize your unconverted husband? Be submissive, be submissive. Your adornment? It's not about external things, braiding or plaiting the hair, which was some kind of weaving it with gold in it, a very fancy thing, wearing gold jewelry, putting on dresses. Look, that's not wrong to do that. God has called us to make the most out of our fallenness, and there's a beauty in adornment. We see that in the Song of Solomon. But your adornment must not be merely external. In fact, that's not going to do it with your husband. You're going to win your husband another way. You don't want to adorn yourself with perishable things, you want to adorn yourself with imperishable things. You don't want to adorn yourself only on the outside, yes, on the outside, but not only on the outside, but on the inside. You want your beauty not just to be seen by your husband, but you want your beauty to be seen by God. This is the true beauty, and it has great value. It is this kind of beauty that can win your husband. It has always been the standard, verse 5. In this way, in former times the holy women also, who hoped in God, used to adorn themselves, from the inside, being submissive to their own husbands. This is unmistakable, this is unmistakable. Any effort to overthrow this is an attack on God and on the divine order, which of course is what feminism in all of its elements is an outright attack on God. Holy women have always done this. Holy women, women who hoped in God, this means redeemed women, this is how they've always adorned themselves, by being submissive to their husband. Illustration. Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. Now don't get carried away, men, please, but you have become her children if you do what is right without being frightened by any fear. You shouldn't be afraid to submit to your husband. It takes all the terror out of the relationship because it brings peace to the relationship. And by this quiet, gentle spirit, you can win an unconverted husband. This is God's design. Thank you for joining us in this exploration of wives to your own husbands as to the Lord. Until next time, remember to keep the faith, stay strong, and continue to shine your light in the world. To hear these daily devotions of your daily bread, please log on to goddisgovernment.com. Goodbye, and may your faith always lead the way.