Episode 7: How to Be a Godly Husband or Wife


                                           Episode 7 (2/28/2020)     
The New Christian Podcast

Title: How to Be a Godly Husband or Wife


1.    Greetings

When we think of a Godly husband or a Godly wife, we have trouble sometimes conveying that to the outside world. In today’s culture of feminism and women’s liberation, the Idea of Biblical marriage and a man and women living Biblically is, to put it bluntly, and to use terms we’ve all heard. (Archaic, Stone Age, no longer relevant, the list goes on and on).

I believe this is an illiteracy problem and a misunderstanding of Scripture as it relates to this topic of Godly husbands, wives, and marriage.

1.    Let define what the Bible considers marriage: Genesis 2:21-24, But for Adam, no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called ‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” 24 That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. Reaffirmed by Jesus in Matthew 19:4-6, 4 “Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ 5 and said, ‘For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Also by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:30-32. 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

The Bible is clear on this that marriage is only between one man and one woman. (CAVIOT: Some will say that the Bible is an arcane book and they live in a time when equality was nonexistent, or it’s not relevant for us today, but if we as believers in Christ only take the thing we believe in out of the Bible and throughout the rest that we deem not relevant. As believers in Jesus, we don’t have that luxury, we either believe it all or nothing).

So, what does the Bible rely say about marriage and how a husband and wife should function Biblically?

1.    The relationship is to reflect the image of God - Genesis 1:26-27 - "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them."

2.    The relationship is fruitful - Genesis 1:28 - God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

3.    Monogamous relationship between husband and wife as stated in the original law - Matthew 19:5 - "and said, 'For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh'?" and - 1 Corinthians 6:16 - "Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in the body? For it is said, "The two will become one flesh."

4.    Husband and wife are equal before God - Ephesians 5:29-31 - "After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church - for we are members of his body. "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." and - 1 Peter 3:7 - "Husbands, in the same way, be considerate as you live with your wives and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers."

5.    Marriage is an indissoluble relationship except on the highest grounds - Matthew 19:9 - "I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

6.    Husband is the loving head of relationship and wife is subordinate - 1 Corinthians 11:8-9 - "For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither was man created for woman, but woman for man." and - Ephesians 5:21-33 - "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Clarify: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband." and - Colossians 3:19 - "Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them."

 
7.    The relationship is fruitful - Genesis 1:28 - "God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground."

In summary, we can see that Scripture tells us marriage is an intimate and complementing union between a man and a woman in which the two become one physically, in the whole of life. God's purpose of marriage is to reflect the relationship of the Godhead and to serve him. Although the fall has marred the divine purpose and function of marriage, this the definition reflects the God-ordained ideal for marriage from the beginning.


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