Responsibilities Of A Christian Wife And Mother

Responsibilities Of A Christian Wife And Mother

EPH. 5:21-24 "Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. (22) Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (23) For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. (24) Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in every thing."

As quoted in my last message, the great British General Montgomery advised his young soldiers to not even consider marriage until they had mastered the art of warfare. If we combined that with General Patton's definition of war, then we can get a true reflection of our contemporary culture's view of the difficulty of the marriage relationship. If we go back to the beginning and examine the record of man's creation and the establishment of the marriage relationship and the institution of marriage and family, we can we can pinpoint the "beginning of sorrows," in this whole matter.

We can find in the account of the creation in the first two Chapters of Genesis that when God completed a particular part of creation He would say, "It is good," Or "It is very good." But perhaps you ladies have noticed that after he created man, for the very first time God said, "It is not good . . ." But, of course, He was basically saying that man without a good woman normally isn't worth a great deal! So God blessed man by giving him a what he needed for completion.

But let us look at the rest of the story and try to determine the most likely source of the tug of war that is admittedly a part of so many marriage relationships; even among those who are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is obvious God didn't plan it that way in the beginning. He created man and woman and established their beautiful relationship for a much nobler purpose. "So God created man in his [own] image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Gen. 1:27- 28) If this is the case, why do we see so much marriage and family breakdown and such obvious rebellion against God's purpose and plan?

A close look at the relationship and responsibilities God gave to the first

couple confirms His high and noble purpose in creating man and establishing the first home. This first perfect couple, made in the image of God, were nobility. Both in their being and in the oneness of their relationship and responsibilities. Even though it is obvious that man was created first and was placed as the responsible leader at the head of that first family, they were in fact commissioned to be co-regents over God's whole creation. A creation so pure, perfect and pristine that their God-given task of jointly filling the earth by fruitful multiplication, subduing the inhabitants and caring for the environment, would obviously proceed beautifully and harmoniously through the ages to come. But then sin rears its ugly head. The whole picture is changed and God's noble plan for man and his relationships is thrown into terrible chaos.

This terrible chaos in reflected in the curse God was compelled to pronounce. He first said to the woman, "Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." (Gen. 3:16) It is obvious that in order to carry out God's command to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth, that all women in the future must continually experience the pain associated with childbirth. This was to be a constant reminder that the rebellion of the first woman.

But this is not the end of the story. The second part of the curse states, " . . . and thy desire [shall be] to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee." Could it be that this is telling us that the woman will desire the man so much that she will not only be willing for him to rule over her, but actually desire him to do so? Of course not. This goes against all common sense and human experience. It is a biological fact that man normally has a much stronger craving for sexual and physical fulfillment than woman. It is a observable historical fact that the natural woman has always resisted the concept of male leadership and authority. If a woman normally and naturally desired a man so strongly that she became willingly and wonderfully submissive to her man, then this would not be a curse. In fact, this is the reason why even many Christian marriages don't make it. Both the husband and wife live in the flesh and act naturally instead of spiritually such a great percentage of the time.