1 Thess. 4:3-6; Gen. 2;18-25, Marriage Responsibility

It would be helpful to remind ourselves of God’s purposes in marriage.  Why did God bring us together in this amazing union of a man and a woman?

·        Gen. 1:28: children.  Children born into a home with a husband and wife (father and mother) is God’s plan for having godly offspring (Mal. 2:14-15).

·        Gen. 2:18: companionship.  (See also Prov. 2:17; Mal. 2:14; 1 Peter 3:7.)

·        Gen. 2:18: completeness.  The woman was suitable, exactly what the man needed.

·        Eph. 5:22-32: co-witnessing.  Through marriage all can see and understand the relationship of Christ and the Church, of God and Man.

These purposes are not attained by God creating two people exactly the same.  Rather these two, equal people reach their fulfillment as two very different people.

II.            Enjoying marital responsibility, Genesis 2.  The differences between husband and wife are captured in the terms head (1 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:23) and helper (Gen. 2:18).

a.     The essence of helping.  (Gen. 2:18-25).  The idea is not difficult.  It is simply helping.  A wife is a companion whose daily life has a lot to do with what God has given her husband to do.  As the well-known description of a noble wife in Prov. 31 indicates, she might be involved in all manner of ways.  A perfect illustration of being a helper is God Himself (Psa. 33:20; Rom. 8:26).

b.     The essence of headship. 

                   i.      The man’s priority relationship with Christ (1 Cor. 11:3).  The man recognizes that, like his wife who looks to him, so he is subject to Christ.  He cannot properly be the head in his home without this.

                ii.      The man’s support of his family by work (1 Tim. 5:6).  God put the man in the garden to care for it.  When sin came along it was the man’s work responsibility that became more difficult through the curse (Gen. 3:17-19).  The point is that work is the husband’s means of caring for his family.

             iii.      The man’s protection of his wife (1 Pet. 3:7).  Many see in the woman being taken from the man’s rib (Gen. 2:21-22) is indicating the protection idea that is called for by Peter when he speaks of the wife as the weaker vessel.

              iv.      The man’s devotion to his wife’s spiritual growth (Eph. 5:26-27).  The man encourages his wife to grow spiritually in her relationship with God.

                 v.      The man’s responsibility for his children (Eph. 6:4; Col. 3:21).  

We mistakenly think that headship is bound up in having the final say in everything.  What we see here is that both helping and being the family head brings with it responsibility.  Marital joy must recognize these different roles and seek, with God’s help, to live them out in love and respect.