Part 7 - Women Subit Unto Your Husbands Series

The Home as God Intended

Part 7 – Wives: Submit unto your Husbands

First Baptist Church of Tawas City Michigan

Rev. Bruce A. Shields

www.TawasBaptist.org

Welcome

Ephesians 5:22-24

“22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.”

Prayer

Now I can’t find this in the Bible, but perhaps you’ve heard the story that before Eve was created, God was talking with Adam. He said, “You really need a helper, don’t you?” And Adam answered, “Yeah, I really do.”

So God said, “What if I make a woman? She’ll be perfect for you. She’ll be beautiful. She’ll rub your back at night, & your feet in the morning. She’ll plop grapes into your mouth. She’ll prepare all your favorite meals without fail. She’ll clean up the kitchen & take care of the kids. You’ll never have to do a thing, just sit around & be the king of your household.”

Adam said, “Boy, that sounds great, but how much is this going to cost?” God said, “Well, it’s pretty expensive. It will cost you an arm & a leg.” Adam thought for a moment & then asked, “How much can I get for a rib?”

We’ve talked over the past few weeks about the house and the way God intends it to be, focusing on the men’s responsibilities and the importance of their spiritual leadership in the home.

We need to keep in mind today that we do not want to take the scripture we just read out of context.

We need to remember that it is our responsibility to ensure that we are living up to God’s expectations of us, not our spouses.

The scripture we just read is for women. Not for men to pull out of their pocket like ammunition when needed.

Men, if you feel your wives are not living up to your expectations, first realize they only have to live up to God’s expectations, second, read;

Ephesians 5:25-33 this is for the men.

If each of us build our relationship with Christ and examine ourselves to ensure that we are living up to God’s expectations, then our spouses will always be satisfied.

Most problems in relationships are REACTIONS to improper actions.

But if men do what God calls them to do, and women do what God calls them to do, they will both be satisfied with the other.

God gave Adam a partner, not a slave.

Not a servant, but someone who would share the responsibility.

Had Adam been meant to rule over his wife from creation then it would not have been necessary to have stated in Eve’s punishment in Genesis 3 “and he will rule over you.”

It was from this punishment that the original Hebrew family structure took their order.

1) husband

2) wife

3) male child

4) female child

5) slave

Although this was the structure, male and female were considered equal by Jewish law.

In Exodus 21 the law was set down concerning personal injury and death. If a person was injured or killed the punishment was the same regardless if they were male or female.

If a slave was injured or killed the death penalty was not required, instead there was a financial punishment.

So slaves were regarded less than everyone else.

But within the context of the law women and men were equal.

In many cultures of the day though, women were no better than slaves.

Demosthenes (384 BC – 322 BC) is generally considered the greatest of all Ancient Greek orators. His writings provide an insight into the life and culture of Athens at this period of time.

He stated “We have courtseans for the sake of pleasure, we have concubines for the sake of daily cohabitation and we have wives for the purpose of having children legitimately.”

We need to eradicate this way of thinking if we are to live godly lives.

In the Greek culture there was no place for a wife.

Xenophon (In Greek Îåíïöῶí, c. 427-355 BCE) was a soldier, mercenary and Athenian student of Socrates and is known for his writings on the history of his own times, the sayings of Socrates, and the life of Greece.

Xenophon wrote about women, “Let her live that she might see as little as possible, hear as little as possible and ask as little as possible.”

Within Greek thinking of the day, the wife’s role was to run the home and care for legitimate children, but the husbands pleasure and companionship were found elsewhere.

They were treated as slaves in their own homes.