Why, hello again! I have decided to go through the rules, or guidelines, I’ve set for myself so that anyone who is reading – Christian or not – can understand why I’ve made the decisions I have made. Being a Christian means living to a higher standard, wanting to imitate Christ. If we are living in (choosing to be sinful) sin, how can we be “imitators of Christ?”
1 Corinthians 11:1-3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
1 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. 2 Now I praise you because you remember me in everything and hold firmly to the traditions, just as I delivered them to you. 3 But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ.
Paul knew Jesus’s teachings. Remember Saul, the man who persecuted the early Christians? Read about him in Acts, specifically chapter 8. In chapter 9, we find Saul is converted to Paul, and then begins TEACHING about Christ , he proclaimed the name of Jesus Christ to the people in Damascus. Can you imagine how hard it was to be Paul that first few months or year? Horrible.. people who knew him as Saul couldn’t believe the transformation, and the ones he persecuted could not either. This is us today too.. When God gets hold of you, a transformation happens. It is amazing! It takes work to stay away from the sins you once took part in.
Back on track now.. in 1 Corinthians, Paul tells us the relationship line.. God>Christ>Man>Woman. EVERY man has to answer to Christ, and ultimately to God for judgment, for how he treated his wife and children. Ladies.. we are not meant to be maids and servants to the man in our lives. We are not meant to tremble in fear when he comes home. We are meant to be loved, lifted up, honored and cherished. A man who abuses the “man is head of the house” in the Bible is not doing as God wills. He will answer for it too.
Ephesians 1:22 (NASB)
22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the church,
1 Corinthians 3:23 (NASB)
23 and you belong to Christ; and Christ belongs to God.
My first rule, that the man I marry MUST be a Christian, is the most important to me. I don’t mean that he calls himself a Christian on Sunday and then acts like a heathen the rest of the week. He will be a man of God, a man after God’s own heart. My main reason for this is that the Word of God is true and holy, and I must do what is necessary for living the right kind of life, the life God wants for me. So I follow the Word.
2 Corinthians 6:14 (NASB)
14 Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness?
He must be ready to be a SPIRITUAL LEADER in the home we will make together. He is the spiritual leader in the home, as described in Ephesians 5.
In Eph. 5:28 He loves his wife as he loves his own body. What normal, sane man will hurt himself because he is angry? Will he punch himself in the face? Nope.. didn’t think so.
In Col. 3:19 He will not be bitter against his wife.
In 1 Pet. 3:7 (NASB) 7You husbands in the same way, live with your wives in an understanding way, as with someone weaker, since she is a woman; and show her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered.
We worship together. We will attend church, volunteer in church and do Bible study together. This is a necessity for a healthy Christian marriage. The man leads in this area.
He knows the Word and takes it to heart. This is literal. How can you be a Christian and not know what God says?
He will teach my (our) son what it means to be a Christian man. My choice would be a man who will adopt my son and treat him like his own. My son will have a father and mentor, teaching him the ways of God so that he will one day treat his own wife the way she deserves.
Ephesians 5: 22-33 (NASB)
22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 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. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, 26 so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 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. 28 So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are members of His body. 31FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 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.
Hopefully I’ve pulled this together coherently enough. I’m not going to get into vs 22 right now, but I will address it in a later post, I promise. J I would love your comments!
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