02/01/2008: "One in Christ"
-Ephesians 5:22-24 NKJV.
When I has worked for CLS Transportation at the McCarran International Airport, I had met a woman who was going through some rough times with her husband's infidelity. She was finally confronted with the very real idea of having to divorce her husband, even though she did not believe in it. As men and women who finally take that step to become one in holy matrimony, she was breaking her vow she had made to God- even through the abuse, constant adultery, and disrespect.
"Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord," Ephesians says. Does that mean that without a question, we women our supposed to submit to an abusive and controlling husband because we love God? I posed this question to her then and she nodded her head. "That is what the bible says," she answered calmly. I thought she was crazy, to be honest. I could not believe that after all she had went through, she still believed in that verse. In fact, I probably would have never believed her if I had not went through my own trials and tribulations. I have gained insight and personal understanding in this verse, that no matter what we go through, we must honor the word of God and honor the bible.
' So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." '
- Ephesians 5: 28-31 NKJV.
I had stumbled across a devotional that was up-to-date. Flipping through each one and reading each day had brought some life into me, had brought some light into my darkened world and I drank in the knowledge God had provided for me at that very moment in time.
Wives, you do submit to your husband if you love God. However, it is also the husband's obligation and sole duty to his wife to treat her as Christ treats his church. It is his responsibility to have understanding of his wife and to take care of her, treating her with utmost respect and lifting her up in God so that she will "not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish." It is the husband's responsibility to love his wife as greatly as Christ so loves the church. It is the husband's responsibility to love his wife as greatly as he loves himself. In verse 33 it says, "Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband." It is saying that the husband should show that he loves his wife because she is one with him and because of the great love he has for himself and in her, she will see that she is cared for and will respect him for such.
My challenge for the month of February is to honor these words. Perhaps I have my work cut out for me but God is there for me, encouraging me to overcome those battles in my life, to be victor. I will not let Satan confound me or bind me in any way that blinds me from God's true word.