The Roles Of The Christian Husband

INTRODUCTION

Whenever you talk about the relationship between a husband and wife, you must always deal with prevailing attitudes. Our attitudes and understanding of what makes a good marriage and of the roles of husband and wife may or may not be right. Even in Christian circles, we have come to accept the attitudes of our culture without critically examining them in light of Scripture. On the one hand, there is the male chauvinist pig movement masquerading as manliness. On the other, there is the women’s radical feminist movement masquerading as freedom. Both are dead wrong.

What goes on in your home? Several years ago, a Dennis the Menace comic strip illustrated how some of these attitudes manifest themselves. Dennis is having cake and milk at the Wilson’s. Mrs. Wilson is washing the dishes while Mr. Wilson is trying to read a newspaper. Dennis wonders aloud why Mr. Wilson never goes to work. Mr. Wilson explains that he is retired. “Retired! Is that why you loaf all the time?” Dennis asks him. Mr. Wilson tells Dennis since he has worked hard for so many years he has earned the right to loaf. This makes Dennis wonder why Mrs. Wilson also doesn’t retire. He has never seen her loaf. Mr. Wilson responds, “She can’t retire because she never worked.” But Dennis has seen Mrs. Wilson always cooking or washing or sewing and he can’t accept that answer. “That’s different,” Mr. Wilson explains. “She’s a housewife! If she retired who’d do the housework?” Dennis asks, “Couldn’t you help?” “Dennis! Are you trying to make trouble?” Mr. Wilson shouts. Mrs. Wilson finally intervenes, telling her husband not to yell at Dennis. “He’s right and you know it!” In the next frame we see Dennis walking up to his mother in her garden. When she asks what the Wilson’s were arguing about, Dennis says, “I don’t know. I came home `cause I didn’t want to get involved!”

There are probably a lot of Mr. Wilson’s out there who think they have the biblical understanding of the wife’s role. The root problem for the man is that he does not understand his role. He does not understand what God expects out of him as a husband.

Dear Ann Landers:

My husband doesn’t talk to me. He just sits there night after night, reading the newspaper or looking at T.V. When I ask him a question, he grunts "huh, or Uh’huh." Sometimes he doesn’t even grunt uh’huh. All he really needs is a housekeeper and somebody to sleep with him when he feels like it. He can buy both. There are times when I wonder why he got married.

God gave us the institution of marriage for the mutual joy of the husband and wife. When God created woman, He said that she was to be Adam’s helper (Genesis 2:18). The word helper does not mean domestic slave, but it means helper. In Genesis 1:26-27 God said, “God blessed them; and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

The purpose for marriage was for procreation (Genesis1:28), companionship (Genesis 2:18), sexual fulfillment ( 1 Corinthians 7:4-5, Hebrews 13:4).

If you read in Genesis, Satan’s first act was to disrupt the family, when he tempted Eve to sin and she got Adam to, notice what happened when they got caught. Adam blamed Eve for his sin.

If you destroy the family structure, you destroy the society.

The wife has a difficult job, she is to submit to her husband, but the husband has a job that is difficult also. He is to love his wife like Christ loved the church.

Today we will look at what kind of love the Christian husband is to have for his wife. Notice that Paul does not say, “Husband’s love your wife (unless you have one you don’t like , or who nags at you or who is no longer a size 4) The love of the husband toward his wife is to be:

1. Sacrificial. Verse 25.

2. Sanctifying. Verses 26-27

3. Satisfying. Verses 28-30

READ EPHESIANS 5:25-33

SERMON

THE HUSBANDS LOVE FOR HIS WIFE IS TO BE SACRIFICIAL. Verse 25.

1. The husband is told that he is to love his wife like Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her.

a. This passage does not tell the husband to dominate the wife or treat her like a slave, but instead he is to love her so much that he is willing to lay down his life for her if necessary!

2. Paul commands the husband to love his wife three times in this short passage.