as you are in love nothing else really matters. "Falling in love" usually means an emotional up heaval. The erroneous theory goes that as long as you are emotion ally involved with the person you plan to marry then you are guar anteed to "live happily ever after." If marriage were based on feel ings alone they would never pos sibly survive. I completely agree with Lord Lyttleton when he wrote, "How much the wife is dearer than the bride." I would not blush to say of my wife and to my wife what C. W. Bethune wrote to his wife, "Without thee I am unblessed, and wholly blessed in thee alone." This is the deeper unity of married love. It is not just a matter of emotions. It has to be also a matter of the will. For Christians God gives def inite responsibilities to husbands and wives. Such exhortations must be taken seriously. God's guide lines have to be accepted. This is not because we feel like obeying them, but because they are His di vine instruction. God gives clear guidance for Christian marriage in at least four different New Testament passages: Ephesians 5:21-33; Colossians 3:18, 19; Titus 2:3-6; and I Peter 3:1-7. Each of these sections deals with the responsibilities of husbands and wives to each other. Since the Holy Spirit in each case starts by talking to the women, I would like to do the same, considering what God's Word has to say to Christian wives. In the first place, wives are to be in submission to their husbands (Ephesian 5:22). With the rise of the so-called women's liberation movement, and in a society where we stress the equality of the sexes,
this may not be a popular mes sage for some. A recent nation wide survey of American women revealed that nearly 90% of them wanted the word "obey" taken out of the marriage vows. Such action, however, could not remove "sub mit" or "obey" from Scripture. One reason why some wives may dislike this command is that they do not really understand it. A woman may feel that this lowers her status. Keep in mind that God recognizes the equality of the sexes (Gallatians 3:28). At the same time He recognizes that the sexes have basic differences. Equality does not mean sameness. For instance, there is one area in which girls are infin itely superior to men, and that is in being a woman! Peter Marshall once observed, "Today's women have interpreted emancipation as the freedom to smoke like a man; to drink like a man; to use rough language, to swear; to work like a man; to treat sex loosely as a man. Women have copied the vices of man in the name of progress!" It is never progress to go in the wrong direc tion, losing ideals and lowering morality. No girl has ever become more noble nor more free by los ing her feminity or her innocence. As a woman, a wife is happiest, God reminds us, when she is in submission to her own husband. It is not a matter of superiority or inferiority at all. I have three friends who started a business together. As the firm developed, the part ners realized that they would have to organize their operations so things would run smoothly. Each man was given an official position, knowing his area of responsibility. One of them was made president, Page 13
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