Being a Wife God’s Way (Part 1 of 2)

The Bible assures us that husbands and wives are spiritual equals equal in value and worth and dignity, so if were equal before God. Why does he command wives to submit to their husbands leadership Alastair Beck answers that question today on Truth for Life.

He's teaching a message titled being a wife. God's way invite you to take your Bibles and will turn together to first Peter one Peter chapter 3 in our focus this morning is on the first six verses which I'd like to read in your hearing first Peter three verse one 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 talk by the behavior of their wives when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight for this is the way the holy women of the past to put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful.

They were submissive to their own husbands, like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master.

You are her doctors. If you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

Father I pray that as we turn our hearts to these verses of Scripture that the Holy Spirit might be our teacher that you will give to us allowed mines the ability to think clearly. The willingness to submit openly to exactly what your word may teach and to this we give ourselves now seeking your grace. In Jesus name, amen as we come to the first verse of chapter 3. What at the midpoint of a section on submission, which arguably continues until the 12th verse of the third chapter and having established the necessity of submission in relation to civil government and then in the realm of everyday employment and having provided the foundational basis for all of this in the example of the Lord Jesus Christ and he did that in versus 21 and following to the end of chapter 2 Peter now turns to the family unit and says if the family unit is to work in the way that God intended than this same principle and pattern of submission needs to be operative and he begins by addressing it in the whole area of the privileges and responsibilities of being a wife and that's why we've entitled our study this morning. Being a wife.

God's way. Being a wife. God's way. Does God have a particular way for a wife to be the answer which Scripture gives is unreservedly yes while, then, do I want to be that kind of wife and do I want to leave my family in such a way as to make it possible as a husband for my wife to become all that God intends for her to be. These are the areas that we now find ourselves addressing any lingering doubts regarding the fitting description of those who are in Christ as being aliens and strangers in the world what you will remember we picked up in the 11th verse of chapter 2 may be dispelled by considering the radical and revolutionary impact of what Peter is saying here if you don't think that you are an alien or a stranger or if you find yourself completely absorbed by the culture find who also if we are tempted to believe that alien and stranger is some kind of anachronistic phrase then that will be gone once and for all.

For the individual for the wife, especially who is prepared to believe and to behave in light of the first six verses of first Peter chapter 3, the wife who lives this out, who seeks to do so will be confronted by the unfavorable reaction of her peers. Peers who regard themselves as incredibly enlightened tremendously progressive very 21st-century ladies and the challenges on a lady who would be prepared to bow beneath the instruction of this word.

Frankly, she would cause last class by dressing up as a Viking and going grocery shopping, then the force that she will cause by building testimony to this principle at a neighborhood gathering of women I put into your ladies try the text. You're invited for coffee and you're going to the grocery store dress-up is in the most bizarre close, you can find and go to the grocery store, then go to the Bible study or to the meeting and suggest that you are committed to being submissive to your husband and then assess which brought the greatest reaction and I want to put it to you that they are Viking in the grocery store is as nothing compared to the impact of a wife who apparently has taken leave of her senses is paying attention to an engine book to words written by a Galilean fisherman that seemingly are locked in history past. Now if that doesn't set this up in about is dynamic away in terms of the impact of these verses as it can, then II can do any further verse one of chapter 3 is linked to the preceding teaching on submission, how do we know that because Peter employs the phrase in the same way wives in the same way. In the same way a SWAT in the same way as all that is gone before in the same way as Christ is displayed to submissive spirit in the same way as we in relationship to civil government are responsible to bombing beneath this truth in the same way wives within the home are to display this submissive spirit.

Now when you come to something like this in your reading through the Bible.

Perhaps you're not reading elsewhere branch of come as a visitor this morning, and here we are at this your same.

Well isn't this perhaps just one word in the midst of the Bible. Is this in accord with what the rest of Scripture teaches and the answer is yes and it is in accord with what we find throughout the rest of Scripture.

For example, in Ephesians 5 and oft quoted verses from their wedding ceremony in Ephesians 5 and 22 Paul has said wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church's body of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, which it must do to be all that Christ intends reported to be soul also wife's should submit to their husbands in everything in order that they might be all that God intends for them as wives to be now if the Scriptures are so clear concerning this.

Why is it that there exists such uncertainty in the minds of men and women in the church irrespective of the society surrounding the church. I want to suggest that it is on account of two things. The reason that we have difficulty in declaring and in displaying this principle of submission is first of all because of the conviction which marks the pagan perspective as some people might not like the use of the word pagan.

I'm sorry, but I chose it guardedly and guided late the world outside of the Christian church is pagan in its perspective. That's what the Bible says and yet it remains very very clear concerning its agenda.

I may give to you. Just one quote, of which there could be many. This is from a lady called Felice Schwartz, the president of catalyst are writing in working woman's magazine quote when the children of today's generation of career women are themselves emerging from their teens.

The polarization of sexes that put women in the home at the nurturing end of the spectrum, and man in the office at the work end of the spectrum will have disappeared, and with it the stereotypes of supportive women and aggressive men and what we must say in response to that is, she seems to be absolutely correct, but to the church which is resident and alien in society is given another agenda altogether and yet such uncertainty promoted by the conviction of a society around us and by the confusion of the church in which we find ourselves. This is seen by the amount of articles which are presently being written which attempt to make mutual submission and the authority off of a husband, or the responsibility of submission actually enemies to one another on the battlefield of life and employment find what the Bible says is that the mutuality which exists between a husband-and-wife and the inevitable responsibilities which fall to each are not in the purposes of God, enemies, but rather friends and we need to think carefully about this and let me try and guide us through time with me for a moment again to Ephesians 5 if you let go of that passage Ephesians chapter 5 and prior to the verse which I read which was the 22nd verse you'll find the 21st verse, which of course you would expect, and in the 21st verses says submits to one another out of reverence for Christ. There is, says Paul to be a mutual die mention of submission which exists in the relationships of God's people to one another and not least of all which exists within the family unit and the relationship between a mom and a dad between my husband and a wife that mutuality of response is not something which is Eric simply here in Ephesians 5, but it comes out clearly in other places. In one of the most graphic expressions of this mutuality is in first Corinthians chapter 7 where Paul is pointing out that husbands and wife's in terms of their responsibilities to one another within the marriage bond as it relates to the physical die mention all their expressions of love for one another are called to mutuality. They are called to mutually submit verse three.

One Corinthians 7 the husband should fulfill his matter to Judy to his wife and likewise the wife to her husband.

The wife's body does not belong to her alone. That's like a red rag to a bull in our present feminist culture. We can allow ladies to walk the streets of America saying my body belongs to me.

We cannot allow statutes to be written in to our governmental laws, which say that husband has no responsibility, no control, no say in what happens to the child. The woman carries in her womb. And why not because her body does not belong to her alone but it also belongs to her husband tremendously. The husbands wait a minute were not finished. In the same way. The husband's body does not belong to him alone, but also to his wife. Therefore, says Paul, do not deprive one another of the physical relationships within marriage mutually submit to one another not going to leave that aside now because that takes us into all whole.

Another area of teaching and will come to that another day. But what in seeing is this that there is a mutuality about the relationship in the marriage bond and we need to understand that clearly bats that mutuality does not negate the place of submission, which is to be taken by a husband to Christ as he submits to the task of leadership and which is to be taken by a wife to her husband as she submits to God's design for her uniquely created with wonderful potential for good as she lives it out for God. Consider Galatians chapter 3. In this regard, we will return to first Peter in a moment or two, but let your fingers do the walking. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 28.

This is a vast, which is often used to teach the exact opposite of what I'm about to teach you, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus Sosa somebody because of Galatians 328 there is now no place for the. The other biblical teaching concerning the responsibilities of headship and authority and submission within the home. But what is Galatians 328 say it's saying this before God, there is only oneness. A woman is not inferior to a man in terms of spiritual citizenship. A lady has direct access to God the father through Jesus Christ the same as does her husband. She is uniquely involved in that relationship. However, what the verse is not teaching is that it overturns. For example, first Peter 31 and is suggesting that since we are all one in Christ Jesus.

And since our maleness and our femaleness does not come into play in the spiritual realm show some argue the notions of gender and the notions of the polarity of the sexes is also completely obliterate but if you think about that. That is so silly that God went for such lengths to make man way man and to make woman as woman and then in the great economy of his purposes from eternity. He decided that it some midpoint he would obliterate all the distinctions of gender except you see loved ones.

We need to learn to study our Bibles in such a way that we allow the Bible to say what it says in the context here in Galatians 3 is that Paul is proclaiming our oneness in Jesus Christ. We are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ sons and daughters of God uses the word sons genetically, as does the rest of Scripture and then he goes on to explain the implications of this. So if I label it a little.

Let me try and come back to what I'm endeavoring to get across mutuality within marriage, says the Bible does not negate the place of submission. Let me illustrate that for you and one final reference first Corinthians chapter 11 in verse three first Corinthians 11 three concerning Jesus. Now I want you to realize says Paul that the hand of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man and the head of Christ is God that is striking about that for a moment. The last phrase, the head of Christ is gone. What do we know those of us who know our Bibles about the Trinity. What we know about God the father the son and the spirit we know that they are coeternal and that they are cool equal, that they are equal in power and in eternity. And then every other way. There is no distinction between the members of the Trinity, so therefore there is an all-consuming mutuality within the Trinity between the father the son and the Spirit, says Paul, the head of Christ is God's. Jesus said I am the father are one. Jesus said you is seen me has seen the father absolute mutuality. So how could it possibly be that God is the head of Christ, the answer is, it cannot be, in essence, or in nature. Therefore, it must be in function in function so therefore Christ who is cool equal with the father in all respect submits from all of eternity to do the father's will.

Not because he is inferior to the father but because it is vital and necessary for the purposes of God to be worked out from all of eternity into time that Jesus delight to do the father's will is mutuality is without question and his submission to the father is absolutely plain. Now the point of all of that is simply this, that that is the exact picture that is the same kind of structure which is written into the fabric of marriage, the husband and wife are equal before God hold on, but in order for the family to function in harmony. The woman with no loss of dignity takes the place of submission to the headship.

All of her husband in the same way as Christ with no loss of dignity to the place of submission to the headship of his heavenly father. Now when we understand that we can stop all this silly stuff.

God's purpose is God's perfect design for a family is such that he has made it at the woman's tenderness and her gentleness are to dovetail with the husband's strength in leadership. Now that is another message to which we're going to come because what about the wimpy husband factor. What about our husbands have never led from day one. What about the abrogation of leadership within the holdings on the parts of med.

What about these crazy characters who don't know where to put brown shoes on her black shoes on and walk around with one brown one black if if if that was necessary. Useless individuals useless to their children useless to the wife's useless characters and how does a wife then make sense of the first six verses of first Peter three. She happens to be living in all with a husband who has never submitted himself to his responsibility under God leadership by ladies with article 6 verses for you and then one for the men that was what Peter did. I died on the will to read a great deal into that except what is there. All right, I hope you heard clearly things Alister said to manage the mutuality within marriage does not negate the place of submission to challenging but clear message from Alastair Bragg your listing to Truth for Life. Now, as you listen to Truth for Life and you benefit from learning what God's word has to say. You may not realize this but you actually have a fellow listener to think someone who has grown in the relationship with Jesus by hearing, the Bible taught clearly and with relevance to everyday life and who wants others to benefit in the same way. In fact, it's this monthly giving from a whole team of fellow listeners who we call truth partners that brings Truth for Life to all of us at no cost online through podcasts, YouTube the Truth for Life mobile app just to name a few. So that you have unlimited free access to Alister's teaching and because our truth. Partners make Truth for Life possible, we're praying God will add to that number in a big way this month so if you're a longtime listener who is considered becoming a true partner but have not yet found a few minutes to go online and set up your monthly giving would you do that today. It's quick, it's easy to do go to Truth for Life.org/true partner or call us at 888-588-7884. We invite truth partners to request the both of the books we select each month.

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