Did You Really Say "Obey"?

February 6, 2024

Recent notes at the bottom. Be prepared for a long one today.

October 17, 2022

1 Peter 3:1-2

Take Time to Pray

Psalm 89:1-2

1 I will sing of the LORD’s great love forever;

          with my mouth I will make Your faithfulness

                    known through all generations.

2 I will declare that Your love stands firm forever,

          that You established Your faithfulness in heaven above.

Examine

          1 Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2 when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.

Notice

God

·       God’s Word in action has power.

·       God’s Word is the power to save.

Lesson

·       People see God in the way we live our lives.

·       God can use us to bring people to faith.

·       We don’t need to loudly stand out. A quite life of submission can be enough.

·       Our home is our first and most important mission field.

Do

Question

·       How well am I serving my home mission?

·       What can I do better?

Response

·       So-so

·       I can take better care of Rick.

February 6, 2024

This takes me back 28 1/2 years to my wedding. Rick and I had chosen to use the traditional vows. Mine included the world "obey." Not a problem for me. However, I found out after the service that this was not okay with my biological mother. Apparently, she was ready to stand up and protest. What stopped her. Ironically, it was my step-father placing a hand on her arm that stopped. How do you like that? She listened to her husband. I am thankful he stopped her.

I have learned through the years that a lot of people do not like the word "obey" in their wedding vows. I think it is just a misunderstood word, especially by women who do not want to be controlled and men who think it means they can be tyrants. Controlling or abusive behavior is definitely not what God intended. God intended marriage to be a reflection of Jesus Christ's relationship with the church.

God's true intention is found in Ephesians 5:22-35. I will only included verses 22-25, but please look up the rest.

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband

is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which

He is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives

should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave

Himself up for her.

If husbands behaved more like Christ, then this submitting thing would be a breeze, right? Only if we were perfect. God knows we can't fulfill the roles of perfect husband and wife, but he gives us guidance.

There are plenty of situations where things are not so black and white. I am not going to go into all of the complications, but they have one thing in common - sin. That is the root problem in troubled marriages - in fact, in all marriages.

Here's something to think about. Jesus is perfect and we are to submit to Him. How well do we do that?

Marriage is hard, but God gives us a blueprint of how to improve things. Submission is hard, but so is trying to be Christ-like in leading. God intended marriage to be a partnership where we build each other up and even pick each other up. It is a constant exercise in forgiveness.

This verse is also refers to the outreach part of marriage. When you have a believer and a nonbeliever, the believer's behavior speaks louder than any words when it comes to showing Christ to the nonbeliever. Just as this works outside of a marriage, it works in a marriage as well. People ask, "Why is this person different?"

We dare not think of submission in a bubble, for there is so much more to it. And when one partner isn't keeping their end of the bargain, so to speak - well, there may be a book or two on that issue.

God's Blessings.