Paul uses "subjection" which re fers to loyalty and leadership, not to a passive resignation to tyranny. Two people cannot drive the same automobile at the same time. If they try, their ultimate destination will be the ditch or the telephone pole. Paul implores wives to allow their husbands to be husbands! One of the problems of our time is that wives want to be husbands, and husbands are letting them! Little can be done for a man who would rather be the tail than the head. If a marriage is to be suc cessful and the home harmonious, the husband has to assume his headship! This is Cod's order. The relationship must continually be "in the Lord." It is constrained by Christ, not coerced by husbands! Husbands Husbands are to be lovers, not lords. Love evokes and elicits; it does not command nor demand. Husbands are not necessarily "kings of a vast domain!" A minister asked his class what matrimony was. One timid boy re plied, "Sir, matrimony is the place of punishment where souls must suffer for a time before they go to heaven." "Good boy," said the cleric, "come to the head of the class." The headship of the husband can only be justified on the basis of Christ's redeeming love. We are to love our wives as "Christ loved the church." When Dr. Harry Iron side was asked by a young man if he were committing idolatry be cause he loved his wife so much, the godly pastor of t he Moody Church replied, "Do you love your wife as much as Christ loved the Church?" "That's impossible," an
swered the young man. "Well, then," said Dr. Ironside, "you are not committing idolatry." If such love is absent, there will be no victory in the personal life, much less at the family level. Phil ipps translates it, "Do not let bit terness or resentment spoil your marriage." Unfortunately, how of ten it does! Why should we act the worst around those whom we love the most? I have seen love fade, wilt, and finally die, for lock of nurture. If our relationship to Christ is right, so should be our love for one another. Children Obedience is one of life's chief virtues. It should be a part of our "ordered society." We cannot go it alone, either at home or in the world. It was John Donne who pointed out, "No man is an island." One of the chief reasons for law lessness and revolution in these days is that children have not been taught to obey. No wonder there are so many broken-hearted par ents in our churches. This text does not encourage blind loyalty or un qualified obedience, as if parents could do no wrong. There are al ways exceptions to any rule. Our Lord indicated that "a man's foes might be those of his own house hold." The time might come from a young person to decide between his loyalty to parents and that to Christ. The commandment is tempered by the words "in the Lord." Disci pline is more than a matter of muscle. Children are people, not dogs or cats! Parents must not, nor can they, give order to children which are not in keeping with prop er Christian ethics or conduct. Par ents should not exact unreasonable Page 33
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