What God Joined Together - Family Radio

Chapter 8
THE WIFE’S UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
What about the wife’s relationship to the husband Because the problem
of unsaved husbands being married to Christian wives appears to be a more
serious and prevalent problem today than Christian husbands being married to
unsaved wives, we will spend considerably more time with this question.
The Bible tells us in Ephesians 5:22, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your
own husbands.” Is this submission to be without condition or resonation
Surely, if she respects him and he is worthy of her respect, she would be
submissive to him. But what if he turns out to be a scoundrel, a drunkard, a
philandering adulterer, or a wife beater Is she still to be submissive to him
Does she have to live like a doormat for him to walk all over The Bible speaks
directly and specifically to this question. There is no need to speculate or
guess about what she is to do while married to such a husband.
Matthew 18:21-22 applies to her in the same way it applies to her husband:
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin
against me, and I forgive him till seven times Jesus saith unto him, I say
not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
If she is a Christian, this passage leaves her no alternative but to forgive
again and again as her husband sins against her.
A TYRANT OF A HUSBAND
God deals more specifically with this problem in I Peter 2 and 3. In I Peter
2:18-24 God deals with the matter of the servant who works for a cruel,
ruthless, despotic master:
Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and
gentle, but also to the froward. For this is thankworthy, if a man for
conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory
is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently but
if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable
with Cod. For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps: Who did no
sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed
himself to him that judgeth righteously: Who his own self bare our sins in
his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto
righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
In these verses God indicates that it is our mission in life to bear patiently
the injustices, the revilings, and the abuse of those who rule over us. We are
34 What God hath joined together...