Powerful families have powerful structures. God is the author of family and it is how His purpose is accomplished. If God is the author of family then we need to understand what He saying about family.
God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.
Genesis 1: 26
18 Now the Lord God said, it is not good (sufficient, satisfactory) that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper meant (suitable, adapted, complimentary) for him. 19 And out of the ground the Lord God formed every [wild] beast and living creature of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name. 20 And Adam gave names to all the livestock and to the birds of the air and to every [wild] beast of the field; but for Adam there was not found a helper meet (suitable, adapted, complementary) for him.
Genesis 1:18-20
Adam was responsible for maintaining the standard of the garden. Adam was responsible for maintaining the spiritual standard of the family. Adam’s response should have been adequate. We need to understand the functioning of family and the responsibility that comes with it.
Therefore be imitators of God as dear children
Ephesians 5:1
And do not be drunk with wine in which is dissipation; but be filled with the spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord 20 giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ
Ephesians 5:18-19
A family unit requires submission. Submitting means putting others before yourself; it means not always doing what you want to do. It means putting God’s desires above your desires. Submission =
- Team player
- Not individualistic
- Not self-seeking
- Rejoices in others success
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.
Ephesians 5: 22-23
Submission means to come under the mission. It does not mean inferiority or being silenced.
Head = leadership and authority.
Husbands have appropriate responsibility to lead and the matching accountability.
25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 That he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it 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.
Ephesians 5:25-29
As Christ nourishes and cherishes the church, so the husband nourishes and cherishes the wife. The wife is the one who is kept, preserved, guarded, shielded, provided for by the husband. Both husband and wife are to die to self and sacrifice – submission expresses that. No husband is entitled to say that he is the head of the wife unless he loves his wife
Worldly VS Godly headship
Worldly: “I am your head, so you take your orders from me and must do whatever I want.”
Godly: “I am your head, so I must care for you and serve you”
Worldly: “You must submit to me, so here are the things I want you to do for me”
Godly: “You must submit to me, so I am accountable before God for you I must care for you and serve you.”
A husband must take an active, caring interest in his wife’s spiritual health. As the priest of the home he helps her keep “clean” before the Lord. There is a oneness within Christ and the church. It is the same within a family.
- Oneness of life
- Oneness of service
- Oneness of mutual necessity
- Oneness of nature
- Oneness of possession
- Oneness of present condition
- Oneness of future destiny
