A challenge to husbands as it relates to their wives…
Wives submit yourselves to your husbands…as the church is subject to the Lord. Husbands love your wives…as Christ loved the church…and gave himself for it.
Please understand…submission isn’t so much about the ORDER of authority, but rather, the governance of the OPERATION of authority. Think about it. The idea is how submission is given and how submission is received. (WRITE THAT DOWN…THINK ABOUT IT…PRAY ABOUT IT…BECAUSE IT IS DEEP!) Constantly, amidst the continual wrangling’s of His disciples, Jesus had to instruct them on the proper operation of authority. Stooping down, creation’s Creator began to wash the feet of HIS servants!
This is important to understand. Authority that is not GOVERNED by love becomes a LORD over it’s heritage. However, authority that IS governed by love will always seek to build up, edify, lift, and empower that which it oversees. Remember, the man (husband) that governs by LOVE (every man is the head of the home) follows the attributes which love expresses. What does love look like?
1 Corinthians 13:4-7 (KJV)
4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,
5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil;
6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth;
7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.
I know too many men that govern by position. Hear me! Love seeks to serve while position seeks service. What did scripture say of Christ, whom husbands are to emulate love in regards to their wives? “Even as the son of man came not to be ministered unto (served), but to minister (serve)…” (Matt. 20:28). Take another look at Christ stooped down at the feet of His disciples…
John 13:12-15 (KJV)
12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you?
13 Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am.
14 If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet.
15 For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done to you.
It takes DISCIPLINE to LOVE as Christ loved! It takes DISCIPLINE of SELF to govern the home as Christ would desire a husband to govern! Self-Control is borne out of a proper perspective of one’s love for self. There is no discipline…no self-control, in the man who yells, condescends, diminishes, or lord’s over his wife.
Don’t tell me how to be a Christian if you can’t be a Christian husband! Don’t express to me your undying love and devotion to Christ if you don’t express an undying love and devotion to your wife. Don’t expect accolades because you serve Christ if you can’t serve your wife! I’ve said in many times before and I will say it again. Want to be a “man of God?” Work on the first word…being a man! Not just a man, but a Godly man. Jesus was ALL man! He didn’t have a physical bride as we understand…but He did have a church whom He called His bride!
Know what He did for His bride? He died for it. He loved it. He gave Himself for it. He sacrificed self to BUILD IT! He worked for it. He served it. He helped it. He nurtured it. He held it. He comforted it. He gave it gifts. He talked to it. He listened to it. He was patient with it. He was kind to it. He was gentle to it…
Husbands…love your wives AS Christ loved the church and GAVE HIMSELF FOR IT. Help us as men…