The Daily Fountain Daily Devotional of the Church Of Nigeria (Anglican Communion) 20 February 2020 – Christian Husband And Wife Relationship
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TOPIC: Christian Husband And Wife Relationship
READ: Ephesians 5:21-33 (NKJV)
21 submitting to one another in the fear of God.
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
23 For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
24 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so [let] the wives [be] to their own husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word,
27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord [does] the church.
30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones.
31 “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”
32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.
33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife [see] that she respects [her] husband.
THE MESSAGE:
True Christian marriage is the one where a husband and wife seek to honour Christ as Lord in their marriage by submitting to the word of God willingly. It is a marriage where the authority and Lordship of Jesus Christ is accepted by both husband and wife. In the beginning, God instituted marriage between a man and a woman for mutual benefit and to bring glory to His name (Genesis 1:26-31, 2:15). Later, sin entered the world and corrupted all things, including the marriage relationship. But through Christ, God is restoring all things to His glory.
We should aim to have Christian marriages and not marriage as practised in the world outside Christ. To achieve this, the word of God has provided the unfailing wisdom to guide a man and his wife.
God instructed the woman to submit to her own husband as unto the Lord (verse 22). Accepting and obeying this is a proof of the wife’s love for the Lord and trust in His ability to produce a glorious godly marriage through her. So refusal to submit to a husband’s leadership is refusal to submit to Christ’s authority as Lord. God commanded the man to love his wife as Christ loves the Church (verse 25); even when the wife fails to submit, the husband is to still love her; doing otherwise is dishonouring the Lord.
Therefore as husband and wife honour the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit empowers them to submit to one another and a marriage honourable and pleasing to God results.
PRAYER: Father thank You for the gift of Christian marriage, help me to always strive to honour Jesus Christ in my marriage. Amen.
