Please click the play button below for Sermon Audio from Sunday, October 2, 2011.
1. The Wife (v. 18)
a. Submission (Ephesians 5:22; 1 Peter 3:1, 5-6, 7)
b.Misconceptions about Submission (Galatians 3:28; 1 Corinthians 7:33-34)
c. Submission to the Lord (Ephesians 5:22-24; Proverbs 31)
3. The Husband (v. 19)
a. Love your wife (1 Peter 3:7; Ephesians 5:25)
b. Our love for her comes from Christ (Ephesians 5:25-31)
c. Love as Christ, Love First (1 John 4:19; John 3:16; Romans 5:8)
3. Children (v. 20, 21)
a. Children Obey (Ephesians 6:1-3; Proverbs 1:8; 6:20)
b. Father to child: do not make them resentful (Ephesians 6:4)
“God created us for this: to live our lives in a way that makes him look more like the greatness and the beauty and the infinite worth that he really is. This is what it means to be created in the image of God.”
Unfortunately, there are some people who claim to be Christians, that give true believers a bad name. A REALLY bad name. One of these circumstances happened this week when host of the 700 Club, Pat Robertson said it was alright to divorce a spouse if they have Alzheimer’s Disease. The reasoning was because, ‘it is like a death.’
Really?
Was that not our problem before Christ? Were we not dead? In fact Paul tells us that in Colossians 2:13–14 (NASB95) — When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. We were dead, we were gone. He had every reason to not even lift a finger. Yet, He did. In fact, as this verse tells us, He nailed our death and sin to the cross. But why? Why did He die for us? Because of His love for us. Romans 5:8 (NASB95) — But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. More telling is 1 John 3:16 (NASB95) — We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Now, we understand that we have a Savior who rescued us from the Kingdom of Darkness (Colossians 1:13). He rescued us because He loved us. Are we not supposed to exemplify that love, ESPECIALLY in our marriages? Just look at what Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:22–33 (NASB95) — Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, 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. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 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. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. 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. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 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. It is because of our love for each other that we willingly sacrifice, no matter the cost. That is the least we can do because that is what Christ did for us. Indeed, Jesus gives the Pharisees a harsh rebuke when they asked Him if a man and woman could divorce for any reason at all. Matthew 19:3–6 (NASB95) — Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
This is not to say anything about 1 Corinthians 7 which Paul underscores the entire chapter talking about marriage and the mere idea of divorce being wrong. For instance, 1 Corinthians 7:10–11 (NASB95) — But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife.
However, if one was wanting to rip a verse out of context, that would support Robertson’s claim, it could be this one: 1 Corinthians 7:39 (NASB95) — A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Unfortunately, the Greek text betrays this idea. It says, “To cause to lie down to sleep” and is used in terms of “the sleep of death, to die, be dead.” Not any figurative uses here (cf. Matthew 28:13; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Corinthians 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15; 2 Peter 3:4). Again, there is not any figurative usage when talking about death here. So this garbage about Alzheimer’s being “a kind of death,” is just that: garbage. His full quote: ”I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her,” Robertson said (view the article here).
I believe what Robertson said was inexcusably, profoundly and Biblically wrong. What he said is against everything the Bible teaches on marriage. “In sickness and health, til death do you part” must not mean very much to him. His idea of a covenant is easily broken if he sustains this heretical view. I am just thankful that God has not given up on me even when I strayed and could have been counted as dead (remember the story of the prodigal son, Pat Robertson).
Dr. Moore from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY was spot on (thanks Bitsy!):
I close with this clip from Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, who resigned his position as a Bible College president to care for his ailing wife who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. I think this man had it right:
