"Christian Vocation: Husbands and Wives" Midweek in Lent1 March 12, 2014 1Peter 3:7; Colossians 3:19; Ephesians 5:22; 1Peter 3:5-6
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. 1Peter 3:7 Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them. Colossians 3:19 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. Ephesians 5:22 They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear. 1Peter 3:5-6 Our first midweek look at Christian vocation took a bird's eye view. What is vocation? It is the calling God gives each of us to serve Him. The very practical nature of that serving is in serving others. Thus, vocation is lived out in many ways as we serve others in many vocations. In starting out, we saw how Christian vocation in a broad sense is that of being a hearer of the Word of God. He speaks, we listen. He gives, we receive. What got Adam and Eve into trouble was that they stopped carrying out this primary vocation God had given to them. This evening, as we begin to look at specific vocations, we will do so under the umbrella of that first vocation, being a hearer and a receiver of God's Word and all His blessings. We start, then, with husbands and wives. When God created Adam He said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a companion, one who is comparable to him; one who will complement him"--and that is complement in the sense of making him complete, as opposed to giving him compliments (although, those are nice too). From the beginning, God saw that His calling to Adam and Eve would be carried out in a blessed way when they were given the calling to love each other and serve each other. This is what He created in marriage. And it is the vocation we unpack tonight. Marriage is only truly understood and fully lived out when it is seen from God's creating us and loving us and giving us each other to love. All relationships in life come from that one that God first brought about when He gave Eve to Adam. Whether you as a Christian are a husband or wife or are not, the Bible's instruction to husbands and wives impacts all of us. Obviously, husbands and wives are enriched in their marriage when they take to heart God's will for them in marriage. But when you hear how Paul speaks of marriage in the first reading this evening you see that there is a whole lot more to marriage than just the love between a husband and wife. There is the image of the greatest marriage of all, that between our Lord and His Bride. The marriage of Jesus and His Holy Christian Church. All instructions given to husbands and wives no longer sound like instructions when we realize that Christ loves His Bride. He gives His life for His Bride. He clothes His Bride in the most beautiful wedding dress, His own righteousness and glory. He loves His Bride as if she were the most immaculate creature on earth. He places her in front of Himself. This is how husbands and wives are able to love each other. How they are able to submit to one another, how they are able to forgive each other, how they are able to treat each other not so much as they would wish to be treated, but as Christ has loved His own bride. As I always tell those who preparing to get married, when you are married and forgiving each other, remember that it's not just the two of you, but Christ at the center of your marriage, always forgiving you, always giving you the forgiveness you need in order to forgive your spouse. The Sixth Commandment--you shall not commit adultery--teaches us that we, and that we is all of us, "should fear and love God so that we lead a sexually pure and decent life in what we say and do, and husband and wife love and honor each other." Whether married or not, we Christians ought to live and think in such a way that honors God's institution of marriage. For those who aren't married, pray for those who are. For those who are, pray that you love your spouse in this most godly way, loving and honoring him or her. The New Testament gives specific instruction to husbands and wives in loving and honoring each other. From 1Peter 3, "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." And from Colossians 3, "Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them." And speaking to wives, from Ephesians 5, "Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord." And from 1Peter 3, "They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear." One other thing I tell couples in pre-marriage counseling is that words like these often don't sit well with 21st century Americans. Words like submitting and obedience and the weaker partner smack of sexism and male chauvinism. To a degree this is understandable, because as with all cultures and all times, we in America today are in a specific culture of a specific time. Things are a lot different here and today than they were two thousand years ago in Palestine. We would do well to hear the words of instructions in the Bible to husbands and wives not only as the Word of God but also with the understanding that we are hearing them very differently from how God's people two thousand years ago heard them. In our culture we value independence and individualism. We value equality when it comes to men and women filling roles in society. Two thousand years ago these were not cultural values and so our values today would have been foreign to them. Having this understanding is helpful in seeing that the New Testament writers were not being sexist or chauvinistic. What they were doing was laying out instructions that are to God's people of all times and all places. The way God sees us is not culturally bound or bound by time. Thankfully, He loves us eternally, and that is why He has given us His Son. So the way we ought to understand these instructions is through the way God sees us and loves us. Thus, when husbands are called by God to be considerate of their wives as they live with them, treating them with respect as the weaker partner, this is the kind of love a husband is to exhibit to his wife in the way Christ loves His Bride, the Church. We, as the Bride of Christ, are the 'weaker vessel,' and yet are esteemed by our Husband, our Lord Jesus Christ. A husband is to protect his wife, and take care of her, love her. Likewise, when wives are called upon by God to submit to their husbands as to the Lord, this is the kind of love a wife is to exhibit to her husband in the way we, the Bride of Christ, love our Bridegroom, our Lord Himself. When it comes to submitting to our Husband, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, there is no question that this is what we ought to do, and there is no question that this is what is best for us. The key in it is that our Bridegroom, Jesus, loves us and gives Himself up for us. How would we not want to submit to Him when He loves us in such a way? So, as Peter says, the holy women of old "were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear." Here again you have this beautiful picture of Christ and His Church, Christ and His beloved Bride. Our Lord is our redeemer. He protects us by saving us and giving us all his love and glory. In this way, then, we, His Bride, submit to Him, obey Him, and call Him Lord. The statement of Peter that Sarah called her husband Abraham "Lord" is striking because our culture is so very different from that kind of thinking. Sarah rejoiced that God had given her a husband to love her, protect her, and cherish her. In the same way, then, wives, ought to submit to their husbands. There's one other point that needs to be made and that is, while cultures and times may change, our sinful nature does not. We have inherited sin from our parents Adam and Eve. We are born in sin. As Christian husbands, we do not love our wives as we ought, even as Adam didn't love Eve as God had called him to. Christian wives do not love their husbands as they have been called to by God. This is one more reason these words of the Scriptures are so difficult to carry out. Our own sinful nature is kicking and screaming against the kind of love these passages are calling husbands and wives to. Thus, the utmost importance of husband and wife loving each other under the cross. A husband is first and foremost a redeemed child of God, loved by Him in His Son Jesus Christ. A wife is above all a daughter of the Most High God, loved by Him in His dear Son. Christian husbands and wives are the Bride of Christ before they are ever joined in one flesh to each other as husband and wife. The true beauty of Christian marriage is loving each other as each has been loved by Christ. Submitting to one another as Christ submitted Himself to us, loving us beyond compare, will put everything else in the perspective that loving in the way these passages call us to is the most natural thing in the world. Amen. SDG -- Pastor Paul L. Willweber Prince of Peace Lutheran Church [LCMS] 6801 Easton Ct., San Diego, California 92120 619.583.1436 princeofpeacesd.net three-taverns.net It is the spirit and genius of Lutheranism to be liberal in everything except where the marks of the Church are concerned. [Henry Hamann, On Being a Christian] _______________________________________________ Sermons mailing list Sermons@cat41.org http://cat41.org/mailman/listinfo/sermons
