PT-3 "Intro into the Role of the Husband" (Eph. 5:25-33)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/18/2019 8:42 PM

 

My Worship Time                                          Focus:  PT-3 “Intro into the Role of the Husband”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            We want to go to the beginning of the Word of God this evening as we begin this SD, and remember that before the fall, Adam and Eve lived in the beautiful harmony and satisfaction of the perfect marriage. That is surely something to think about as marriages at best are at times difficult in the days we live in.  Adam had looked at all of the animals that God had created and because he had full use of his brain he named them all but was disappointed that looking at the animals who all had mates, he did not have one.   When Adam first saw Eve, he immediately recognized her as his perfect companion, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,” Adam said in Genesis 2:23.  Adam saw no blemishes or shortcomings in Eve because both her character and his attitude were pure.  There was not a thing to criticize in Eve and there was no critical spirit in Adam.  Though they were both naked, they were not ashamed (v. 25), because there was no such thing as an evil, impure, or even any perverse thought.  Again that is far different than what we see today, and it all has to do with sin.

 

            John MacArthur writes “Man was created first and was given headship over the woman and over creation.  But their original relationship was so pure and perfect that his headship over her was a manifestation of his consuming love for her, and her submission to him was manifestation of her consuming love for him.  No selfishness or self-will marred their relationship.  Each lived for the other in perfect fulfillment of their create purpose and under God’s perfect provision and care.

 

            “The man and woman were so closely identified with each other that God’s command was for ‘them [to rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth…God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’’ (Gen. 1:26-28).”

 

            Some may wonder why marriage was instituted.  It was instituted to procreate mankind, to raise up children to fill the earth as stated in Genesis 1:28.  There is more as it is also for the purpose of companionship, so that man would not be alone as seen in Genesis 2:18, and also for the purpose of sexual fulfillment and pleasure as can be seen in 1 Corinthians 7:4-5; compare Hebrew 13:4.  I think we better look at these verses:  “4 The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband does; and likewise also the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does. 5 Stop depriving one another, except by agreement for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer, and come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.”  “Marriage is to be held in honor among all, and the marriage bed is to be undefiled; for fornicators and adulterers God will judge.”

 

            When we were looking at the role of the wife we discussed why the perfect marriage relationship of Adam and Eve was interrupted.  The fall itself involved a perversion of marital roles, and God’s cure because of the Fall also affected marriage.  Eve sinned not only in disobeying what God specifically commanded but also in acting independently of her husband and then failing to consult Adam about the serpent’s temptation.  Adam sinned not only by disobeying God’s command but by succumbing to Eve’s leadership, thus failing to exercise his God-given authority.  Now it was because of her disobedience, God cursed the woman to pain in giving birth to children and to a perverted desire to rule over the man.  Then the man was cursed to toil, to difficulty, to frustration in wresting sustenance from the land, and to conflict with his wife over her submission.  I think we can all understand this.  Then they were both cursed with death as the penalty for their sins as seen in Genesis 3:16-19; and then we can also look at Romans 5:15-19, and as we look at these sets of verses that will end today’s SD.

 

            “16 To the woman He said, "I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you." 17  Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ’You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life. 18  "Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field; 19  By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return’” (Gen. 3:16-19).

 

            15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 16 The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. 17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. 18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men. 19 For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:15-19)

 

 

Today we look at the last of the verses that go along with the quotations that have been posted.  Yesterday we looked at a quotation from Brother Lawrence, and 1 John 4:7 is the verse that goes along with this quotation:  “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” 

 

            I have a little booklet entitled “Love in Action, changing lives with the power of Encouragement” written by David Jeremiah and my plans are to use quotations from this book at the end of each of my Spiritual Diaries.  I remember listening to some sermons about 20+ years ago on encouragement by Dr. Jeremiah and he stated the encouragement was like pouring courage into a person so I hope that will be the outcome as these quotations are quoted from this book.  I will begin with the introduction to this book in our next SD, Lord willing.

 

8/18/2019 9:21 PM

 

           

PT-2 "Intro to Eph. 5:25-33)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/17/2019 12:22 PM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  PT-2 “Intro to Eph. 5:25-33”

 

Bible Reading & Mediation                                                  Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            To kind of pick up from our last SD I want to look at 2 Timothy 3:1-5 & 13 “1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3  unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4  treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5  holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these…13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”  I can’t help but think as I read these verses that we are living in times just as Paul wrote to Timothy about, and one must also remember that 2 Timothy is the very last letter that Paul wrote that is contained in the Word of God. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “In that awesome list of sins there are several—such as disobedience to parents, lack of love (the Greek term, astorgos, refers to lack of natural affection for one’s family), and brutality—that are directly undermining the home today.  But every sin that weakens the individual also weakens the home to some extent; every aspect of ungodliness weakens the relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, and brothers and sisters.  The home has become fair game for every deceiver, every sexual pervert, every exploiter, as Satan mounts his great attack on the foundation stone of society.”

           

            Because of the curse on marriage at the Fall and the inclinations of man’s fallen nature and of the world to oppose God’s way, the family has always had difficulty.  In the western culture of our day, however, it is under an onslaught seemingly unlike any other in this society’s history.  There is less chance than before of a family’s living together in harmony, love, and mutual respect apart from God’s provision in Christ.  As every new corruption appears, a new philosophy arises to justify it.  And those who persist in flouting God’s way are destined, as Paul prophesied, to go from bad to worse.  Marriage, along with every other institution and design of God, will be more and more debased, as men go deeper into sexual perversion and selfishness.”  As mentioned in our last SD this commentary on Ephesians by John MacArthur is close to 40 years old, and the messages that he used to help write this commentary are closer to 50 years old, so things have gotten considerably worse since then, as the Scripture  has stated it would when we get closer to the end of the Church age.

 

In tomorrow’s  SD we will be looking at the very last quotation from the series that I have from Dr. David Jeremiah, and this one comes from Brother Lawrence:  “We ought not to be weary of doing little things for the love of God, who regards not the greatness of the work, but the love with which it is performed.”

 

8/17/2019 12:45 PM

PT-1 "The Role and Priorities of the Husband" (Eph. 5:25-33)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/16/2019 11:02 AM

 

My Worship Time                        Focus:  PT-1 Intro to “The Role and Priorities of the Husband”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  Ephesians 5:25-33

 

            Message of the verses:  “25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31 FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.”

 

            This SD has to begin with the topic of marriage, and marriage was begun by God way back in the Garden of Eden, and it was and still is between a man and a woman.  Marriage in today’s world is much different than when it began, but when done correctly as seen in the Scriptures it is a wonderful experience.  In his commentary on this section John MacArthur quotes a book written by Dr. Carl Rogers who is giving his views of a humanistic unbeliever.  The book is entitled “Becoming Partners:  Marriage and Its Alternatives.”

 

            “To me it seems that we are living in an important and uncertain age, and the institution of marriage is most assuredly in an uncertain state.  If 50-75 percent of Ford or General Motors cars completely fell apart within the early part of their lifetimes as automobiles, drastic steps would be taken.  We have no such well organized way of dealing with our social institutions, so people are groping, more or less blindly, to find alternatives to marriage (which is certainly less than 50 percent successful).  Living together without marriage, living in communes, extensive childcare centers, serial monogamy (which one divorce after another), the women’s liberation movement to establish the woman as person in her own right, new divorce laws which do away with the concept of guilt—these are all groping toward some new form of man-woman relations for the future.  It would take a bolder man than I to predict what will emerge.  (New York:  Dell, 1973, p. 11).”

 

            I have mentioned that this commentary on Ephesians by John MacArthur was written in the 1980’s and so this quotation had to come from sometime around that that period.  The prediction that man was afraid to give about marriage was probably a good idea that he did not give it, for what has happened back then has only gotten worse, worse probably beyond this man’s or any other man’s guess of what would happen to marriage.  However all one has to do is to look at Romans 1:18-32 to find out how the downfall of a nation happens, or the downfall of individuals, and so to be frank what is going on is not a surprise to me.  I was listening to a favorite radio show yesterday and the person speaking with half his brain tied behind his back to make if fair for other on the radio or TV stated that the reason why people around this world and in our country hate our President is because he has stopped what they want, and what they want is a one world government.  Again not surprising to me as this is all spelled out in some of the prophetic books of the Old Testament and also in the New Testament especially in the book of Revelation.  Now at this point I have to apologize for getting off the track of talking about what the roles and priorities of the husband is, but sometimes I have to just write what is on my mind.

 

            We will continue looking at this topic in our next SD, and for that matter probably for a few more after that as this introduction will be pretty long.

 

Today’s verse that goes along with our unknown author from yesterday is found in 2 Timothy 3:16-17:  “16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.”

 

8/16/2019 11:30 AM

The Model of Submission (Eph. 5:23b-24)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/15/2019 8:49 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  “The Model of Submission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:23b-24

 

            Message of the verse:  “He Himself being the Savior of the body.  But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.”

 

            I want to look again at some verses in Philippians to show us how Jesus Christ submitted to His Father in order to pay the price for our salvation.  “3 Never act from motives of rivalry or

personal vanity, but in humility think more of each other than you do of yourselves. 4 None of you should think only of his own affairs, but consider other people’s interests also. 5 Let your attitude to life be that of Christ Jesus himself. 6 For He, who had always been God by nature, did not cling to His privileges as God’s equal, 7 but stripped himself of every advantage by consenting to be a slave by nature and being born a man. 8 And, plainly seen as a human being, He humbled Himself by living a life of utter obedience, to the point of death, and the death He died was the death of a common criminal. 9 That is why God has now lifted Him to the heights, and has given Him the name beyond all names, 10 so that at the name of Jesus "every knee shall bow," whether in Heaven or earth or under the earth. 11 And that is why "every tongue shall confess" that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” Phil. 2:3-11 Phillips).  We can see from these verses that the supreme and ultimate model of submission is Jesus Christ Himself.  Christ is “the Savior of the body,” His church, for whom He died on the cross.  Jesus Christ is the perfect Provider, Protector, and Head of His church and the church is His body.

 

            MacArthur writes “Jesus Christ is the divine role model for husbands, who should provide for, protect, preserve, love, and lead their wives and families as Christ cares for His church.  Wives are no more to be co-providers, co-protectors, or co-leaders with their husbands that the church is have such joint roles with Jesus Christ.  Just as ‘the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.’  

 

            “To follow God’s plan for the family not only is pleasing to Him but is the only way to godlier, happier, and more secure homes.  His plan is neither for exaltation of man and suppression of woman nor the exaltation of woman and suppression of man, but for the perfection and fulfillment of both man and woman as He has ordained them to be.  Such perfection and fulfillment is made possible by the filling of the Holy Spirit.”

 

            This SD marks the end of talking about the role of the wife and as mentioned in an earlier SD we will next be looking at the role and the priorities of the husband.  As John MacArthur mentioned none of the things that a wife or a husband are to do cannot be done without the filling of the Holy Spirit.  We began looking at being filled with the Holy Spirit back in verse eighteen back on the 9^th of July and will continue to look at what believers are to do as they are filled with the Holy Spirit.  As we looked at the verses in the book of Philippians at the beginning of this SD we saw what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished for us when He came to earth.  I believe that at His baptism which was the beginning of His ministry we see that the Holy Spirit came upon Him in order to fill Him so that He could do what the Father sent Him to do, that is pay the price for His bride as He died on the cross.  I heard someone say a very long time ago that it was the Holy Spirit who lived the perfect life in Christ while He was on earth, and so the point that I want to make is that if Christ was filled with the Holy Spirit in order to accomplish what God planned for Him to do, then we as believers are in need of the Holy Spirit filling us to do what He has planned for us to do:  “For God has made us what we are, created in Christ Jesus to do those good deeds which he planned for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10 Phillips).

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to have the Holy Spirit fill me so that I can accomplish the works that God has for me to do this day.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  The answer to being humble is found in the verses in Philippians that we looked at, and also in our verses we have been studying in Ephesians, and that is being filled with the Holy Spirit.

 

Toda’s quotation comes from an unknown author who said “The Bible is bread for daily use, not cake for special occasions.”

 

8/15/2019 9:20 AM

The Manner of Submission (Eph. 5:22b)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/14/2019 10:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus: “The Manner of Submission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:22b

 

            Message of the verse:  “as to the Lord.”

 

            It is the manner or the attitude of submission is to be “as to the Lord.”  We are to do everything in obedience to the Lord, and this should also be done first of all for to the glory of the Lord in order to please Him.  MacArthur writes “Those to whom we submit, whether in mutual submission or in response to their functional authority, will often not inspire respect.  Sometimes they will be thoughtless, inconsiderate, abusive, and ungrateful.  But the Spirit-filled believer—in this instance, the wife—submits anyway, because that is the Lord’s will and her submission is to Him.  A wife who properly submits to her husband also submits ‘to the Lord’.  And a wife who does not submit to her husband also does not submit to the Lord.”

 

The Motive of Submission:  (Ephesians 5:23a) “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.”

 

            In my Scripture reading for today I was reading from the 11^th and 12^th chapter of 1 Corinthians and in the first part of the 11^th chapter Paul writes things about submission:  “3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.”  Paul is talking about the order of things, and states that it was woman who first came out of the man, and then after that all men came out of women.  I mentioned this in an earlier SD that in the Godhead there is submission as seen in this section. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “The wife’s supreme motive for submitting to her husband is the fact that he is her functional head in the family, just ‘as Christ also is the head of the Church (cf. 1 Cor. 11:3; Col. 1:18; and see Eph. 1:22-23).  The head gives direction and the body responds.  A physical body that does not respond to the direction of the head is crippled, paralyzed, or spastic.  Likewise, a wife who does not properly respond to the direction of her husband manifests a serious spiritual dysfunction.  On the other hand, a wife who willingly and lovingly responds to her husband’s leadership as to the Lord is an honor to her Lord, her husband, her family, her church and herself.  She is also a beautiful testimony to the Lord before in view of the world around her.”

 

            I mentioned that this would be a rather short SD, but it is packed full of very useful things to think about and to do.  Don’t worry wives the next section is for the husband, right after we do one more sub-section for the wives.

 

The Scripture that goes along with the quotation from Abraham Lincoln is from Proverbs 21:1 “The king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord, like the rivers of water; He turns it wherever He wishes.”

 

8/14/2019 11:05 AM

PT-6 "The Matter of Submission) (Eph. 5:22a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2019 10:47 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-6 “The Matter of Submission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:22a

 

            Message of the verse:  “Wives, be subject to your own husbands,”

 

            We want to continue for at least a little while talking more about the older women who would be examples to the younger women of the church to be submissive to their husbands.  Paul writes the following “older women likewise are to be reverent to their behavior, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to live their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject [hupotasso] to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored” (Titus 2:3-5).   As we look at our country today we see that one thing that is lacking and that is younger wives should be workers in their homes, taking care of their children, not just taking them to some kind of day care place where they could be taught the ways of the world.  It is no wonder the things that are godly have been falling apart for a long time in our country.  It seemed to start after the Second World War when women had to go to work to help build war supplies, and then when it was over women in many cases continued to work outside of the home. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “The term ‘workers at home’ in Titus 2:5 is from the compound Greek word oikourgos, which is derived from oikos [house] and a form of ergon (work).  Ergon, however, does not simply refer to labor in general but often connotes the idea of a particular job or employment.  It is the word Jesus used when He said, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work’ (John 4:34, emphasis added) and, on another occasion, ‘I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou has given Me to do’ (17:4, emphasis added).  It is the word the Holy Spirit used in commanding the church at Antioch to ‘set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’ (Acts 13:2, emphasis added).  Paul used the word in relation to Epaphroditus, who ‘came close to death for the work of Christ’ (Phil. 2:30, emphasis added) and in relation to the work of faithful Christian leaders in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5:13).  In other words, it is not that a woman is simply to keep busy in the home but that the home is the basic place of her employment, her divinely assigned job.”  MacArthur later states that “God’s standard is for the wife and mother to work inside, not outside, the home.  For a mother to get a job outside the home in order to send the children to a Christian school is to misunderstand her husband’s role as provider as well as her own duty to the family.  The good training her children receive in the Christian school may be counteracted by her lack of full commitment to the biblical standards for motherhood.” 

 

            I believe that I have said enough about the fact that the Bible does teach that a woman’s work is inside the home, and am thankful that my mother, and then my wife, and then my daughter have all followed these Biblical teachings.

 

            As we look at many cults today we see why younger people are attracted to them is because they seem to show a family-like group in which they feel the acceptance and love they never received at home and this was frequently due to the mother’s absence from the home. 

            Paul talks a great deal about widows in his letter to Timothy, the first letter to Timothy.  The widows are to be taken care of by the church, so that the women who are widows do not have to work outside the home.  Paul even states that if a women who is a young widow has the opportunity to re-marry then she should do this.  I realize that many, many churches in our society today do not follow this practice.  Perhaps it is because of a lack of faith or just not bothering to follow what Paul has written here.

 

            One more quote on mothers working outside the home, even though I said that I was done with it:  “Just as with drinking of alcoholic beverages, the Bible does not specifically forbid a wife to work outside the home.   But the biblical priorities are so clear that they can only be obeyed or rejected openly, and each woman must choose how she will honor those priorities.”

 

            At the beginning of this section some six SD’s ago we stated that there will be time to look at the rest of the verses associated with this section and we will begin, Lord willing to do that in our next SD.  We have three more main sections which are very short to look at and I hope to cover them in two days.  Let me close with a statement that I have on my prayer list that I hope will be effective for the subject we have been looking at today:  “The Lord always has the last word, and it will not be darkness.  We should never follow in the darkness what God has taught us in the light.”  This quote comes from Warren Wiersbe, a favorite author of mine.

 

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  My step of faith for today is to trust that the Lord will use these past six SD’s to give encouragement to those who read them along with obedience to the Scriptures that they came from.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will continue to teach me humility as I study His Word each day.

 

Today’s quotation comes from one of my favorite Presidents, Abraham Lincoln who said “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

 

8/13/2019 11:33 AM

PT-5 "The Matter of Submission (Eph. 5:22a)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/12/2019 8:46 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                      Focus:  PT-5 “The Matter of Submission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Ephesians 5:22a

 

            Message of the verses:  “Wives, be subject to your own husbands,”

 

            The following comes from what is called “The Mishmash,” and this is an ancient codification of Jewish law and tradition.  This reflects what was happening during the time when Jesus was on planet earth as John MacArthur writes using the data from “The Mishmash.”  “It describes the wife’s duties as those of grinding flour, baking, cooking, nursing her children, spinning wool, laundering, and other such typical household chores.  The husband’s responsibility was to provide food, clothing, shoes, and such things.  He often gave his wife a certain amount of money each week for her personal expenses.  Many women worked with their husbands in the fields or in a trade—as did Aquila and Priscilla (Acts 18:2-3).  A wife was allowed to work at crafts or horticulture at home and to sell the fruits of her labor.  Profits were used either to supplement family income or to provide her with her own spending money.  But if she worked apart from her husband in the marketplace or at a trade she was considered a disgrace.  Apart from her household chores and possible work with her husband, a wife was also responsible for getting her sons ready for school (often taking them personally to prevent truancy), caring for guests, and doing charitable work.  At all times she was to adorn herself properly, for the sake of modesty as well as nice appearance.  The wife who faithfully carried her responsibilities was held in high regard in her family, in the synagogue, and in the community.”  I have mentioned in an earlier SD that when my mother was offered a job taking care of a neighbor boy so that his mom could work outside the home, my father would not allow it because it was his view that the mother should not work outside the home when she had children.  I think that this was pretty much the normal growing up in the 1950’s in the United States of America.   Things have certainly changed since then and although most families have more funds to spend in this day and age, the spiritual condition of our country has dropped off a great deal.  Take for instance a young college student asking a democratic man running for President and she asked him how many genders we have.  His answer was three, but stated he was not sure, and then told the young woman to get away from him.  It upset her a great deal as she latter said, but to ask how many genders there are just shows how far the spirituality of our country has fallen in close to 70 years. 

 

            Paul writes about the women in Corinth not wearing veils on their heads, which was probably something that happened in Corinth.  Some were not wearing them because of early influential feminists of the city and began going out in public without a veil.  MacArthur writes “The New Testament does not prescribe the wearing of veils for all women.  Though it appears to have been the norm in Corinth (cf. 1 Cor. 11:4-6), there is no reason to assume that Christian women in all the rest of the early churches wore veils.  Apparently in Corinth the only women who traditionally did not wear veils were prostitutes or feminists, both of which groups had no regard for God or for the home.  In that culture veils were a sign of moral propriety and submission, and failure to wear them a sign of immorality and rebelliousness.  In that cultural circumstance Paul advised women to cover their heads ‘while praying or prophesying’ (1 Cor. 11:5), lest they be considered to be rebelling against God’s ordained principle of submissiveness.  Paul did not here establish a permanent or universal mode of dress for Christian women, but reinforced the principle that they should never give to their society even the suggestion of rebelliousness or immorality.”  I am thankful to get a better understanding of what in the past has been a problem in my understanding this section of Scripture.  I thought it was a culture thing, but now am convinced it was.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful for better understanding different areas of submission, not just in the case of wives, but also in the case of everyone as Paul talks about in Ephesians.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I am thankful that in the near future that I will have the opportunity of talking with my Pastor about humility, and also the filling of the Holy Spirit as when I began this quest to understand humility I have had some rocky times in my walk with the Lord as I believe that this was all from the Lord to learn more about humility and He is the One who has allowed me to have some tough times in my walk with Him so that I will be better off after learning what it is that He wants me to learn.  For this I am thankful.

 

Today’s verse that goes along with the quote from David Nicholas comes from 2 Corinthians 1:20 “For all the promises of God in Him are yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”

 

8/12/2019 9:19 AM