Proverbs 14:1, Marriage and the Family Under Attack!

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July 27, Proverbs 14:1

1 Pet. 3:1-12; Eph. 5:20-33 “This is a great mystery… concerning Christ and the church.”

Marriage and the Family Under Attack!

Modern “enlightened” man, rejecting Christ, rejects God’s Word as well. Yet he feels competent to legislate how marriage shall and shall not be defined. The homosexual lobby is controlling the agenda of many of our Parliaments. The coming years, if the Lord tarries, will witness a horrendous harvest that this corrupt tree must produce. From an old work, quoted by Bridges, we have this outline for the building of a house that will also be a home. “Firstly, a holy coming together; secondly, a special fitness in the head of the family, and lastly, a holy living together. As many order the matter, they so provoke God by the first entering upon a family, that the family travels ever after under the banner of God’s anger.” What does this matter in our day when so many, even professing Christians, are living in unholy unions? Our Proverb warns us: The foolish plucks it down with her hands. The “enlightened” here are only fools, but what wreckage they are wreaking! In contrast, Every wise woman builds her house, but it only begins when she is married in the Lord (1 Cor. 7:39). Then, Christ is present on the Wedding Day (Jn. 2:2), in the Home (Mk. 2:1), and on the whole of Life’s Journey.

1. A Sacred Relationship: Paul, by Inspiration (Eph. 5), describes this journey. It begins with thanksgiving unto God, and in submitting one to another in the fear of God. The local church’s relationship to Christ is likened to a wife’s relationship to her husband. Wives submit to their own husbands, as unto the Lord. Husbands are to love their wives because they are part of their own bodies. Their love must be patterned after the love of Christ for the church! Husbands can only rule as they themselves are ruled by Christ! The wise woman will have no difficulty building up her house, her husband, and her family, in such a relationship. It truly is a holy coming together.

2. A Spiritual Partnership: Peter (1 Pet. 3) describes the wife and husband as heirs together. He instructs wives as to their conduct (v.1), their chastity (v.2), their cosmetics (vs.3-4), and their character (vs.5-6). Likewise, he admonishes husbands as to their courtesy, their consideration, their concord, and their communion, that your prayers be not hindered (v.7). He appeals to both to have compassion, to love as brethren, and in all things be courteous (vs.8-11). They are to live as ever in the presence of God (vs.4, 12). True believers are a. Fellow-Pilgrims to Glory (Heb. 11:9); b. Fellow-Heirs of Christ’s Riches (Rom. 8:17); c. Fellow-Members of Christ’s Assembly (Eph. 3:6). Mark well that beautiful expression, Heirs together of the grace of life. Grace is the undeserved favour of God. It is a Life filled with gratitude, a Life well pleasing to the Lord and to one another, a Life expressing the beauty of Christ’s character. Grace (charis) means all of these things, and grace alone brings them all into a holy living together.

Thought: The family is God’s first Institution; man overthrows it at his peril.

Prayer: Lord, for more and yet more godly, wise women.