What Is A Family Part Two

What is a Family

Part Two of the Series

In the last sermon we discussed the husband and his role and touched briefly on the woman’s role. Now we will get into the woman’s role a little more in detail. We will cover a few topics within this sermon and hopefully by the end of the sermon you will have an understanding of what a wife is and how God says she should be. The wife is the female partner of a marriage. Again, I must emphasize that she is a partner and not a slave. She is entitled to the same rights equated to the man with different responsibilities and role.

The woman we find in Gen 2 was created to be a help mate.

21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof; 22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. 24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Woman was made out of man to be a help mate. Woman was created so man would not be alone.(Gen 2:18) God did not make woman for man to dictate. The very creation by design was a helper in all man does. God did not want man to be alone so he created woman, a companion made from the rib of man. She is not to be inferior to man, but to be a compliment to man. It is by creation that man leaves his parents and cleaves to his wife. Now let’s look at the wife in more detail. Actually, let’s look at her role as a wife more than as a woman per sey.

Let’s take a look at the woman’s role as described in God’s word. First we will, again, look in Eph 5

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.

Wives submit. You have to understand submit first. Here Paul is not describing a worldly submission, he is describing a Godly submission. Worldly submission is a surrender of one’s self. A Godly submission is a surrender to serve and care for another. It is a submission that one will submit themselves unto the service of another. We need to look at this very carefully. A love of submission is a love that has a willingness to serve. The role of submission is not giving up your human rights. Submission is not the woman being submissive to the man. It means that the woman since she loves should be of service to the husband. Many marriages do not understand this principle. By no means is this submission to be deemed as a woman upon marrying giving up her total being. It means more than that. You are still an individual however, now you have joined with a man and become one flesh. Woman is man’s helpmate, she is his partner. She is to be united with man and they become one flesh, both striving to serve Christ in all that they do. This means that the two of you now must live as one.

The best example is Christ submitting to the church and thus serving the church. So must woman serve man. It is through the submission of ones mind and soul that one is truly submitting to another. Through submission to Christ we learn the true meaning of submission.

The role then of the wife is to be a partner to the husband. To be submissive unto him in order to serve God. Through serving, woman becomes a virtuous woman. Read proverbs 31:10-31 where we find the true worth of a wife. She is more priceless than rubies(31:10). The husband’s heart trusts in her(31:11). She will do him good(31:12). God created woman to be a helpmate to man and as such they join into one flesh. They should have equal goals, desires and dreams. Prov 18:22 Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.

You notice that in the very same chapter of Ephesians, if we go to the next verse, Paul was led to tell men that they must love their wife and even described the type of love they must use. In Eph 5:25