FAMILY: THE HUSBAND

The American family is in crisis. In the year 2,000, of the 59 million families, 56% were couples, 91% of the couples were married, 9% were unmarried, 1% were same sex, 50% were divorced, 67% were in their 2nd marriage and 74% were in their 3rd marriage. Warning: historian Edward Gibbons said the Roman Empire crumbled, due largely to rampant divorce.
The husband/wife relationship is pictured in Ephesians 5:25-30, illustrating the relationship between Christ and His church. The husband is to love his wife, as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for it. Just so, the husband is to love and cherish his wife as his own body. He is to sanctify her and be her “head,” her leader. His life is not to be self-centered, putting golf, game or getting rich ahead of his concern for her. He is to seek her best interest and is not to be harsh with her (Col 3:9). He is to respect her and show her honor as the “weaker partner” in the “gracious gift of life” (I Peter 3:7). He is to lead in obedience to Christ, is to be faithful in sickness and in health till death separates them.

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