Sunday Leftovers (5/27/07)

As is often the case, I didn't finish my sermon on Sunday.

Not only did I not complete the sermon, but I left unsaid a number of things along the way. Here are a few of them (saving still a few for this coming Sunday)…

Peter's words to wives and husbands in 1 Peter 3 is in the immediate context of how to persevere in difficult and even unrighteous circumstances, answering the question, "How can a believer live a holy life as light to a dark world when treated unjustly?"

But these words also sit in the broader context of all Scriptural instruction on marriage. And particularly, these admonitions are rooted in the account of creation and the creation of the institution of marriage. There is no understanding 1 Peter 3 (or any other injunction on the home) without understanding Genesis 2.

So when Peter commands husbands to "live with your wives…" (3:7), it is with the backdrop of Genesis 2 in mind. To live with your wife means that the husband lives with her in such a way that reflects their oneness and unity. They are not two separate identities with two different objectives and two different purposes and passions who just happen to have the same address. A husband and wife are two people who have been brought together in the most unique relationship with a singular objective, purpose and passion. In every sense of the word, they are one, and everything the husband does in leading his wife demonstrates that he is one with her.

This will be reiterated in v. 8, when Peter exhorts both husband and wife to let every aspect of their lives be harmonious — reflecting that unity of heart.

How might a husband demonstrate his unity with his wife? Writing in a different context, Samuel Logan Brengle wisely noted that:

"[Spiritual leadership] is not won by promotion, but by many prayers and tears. It is attained by confessions of sin, and much heartsearching and humbling before God; by self-surrender, a courageous sacrifice of every idol, a bold, deathless, uncompromising and uncomplaining embrace of the cross, and by an eternal, unfaltering looking unto Jesus crucified. It is not gained by seeking great things for ourselves, but rather, like Paul, by counting those things that are gain to us as loss for Christ. That is a great price, but it must be paid by him who would be not merely a nominal but a real spiritual leader of men, a leader whose power is recognized and felt in heaven, on earth, and in hell."

One final observation of the exhortation given to the husbands. Genesis 2 says that husband and wife are one flesh. And this passage emphasizes that the husband is to love his wife by living with his wife, while Ephesians 5 emphasizes that he is to love his wife by giving himself up (like Christ) for his wife. So in all he does — in both life and death — the husband demonstrates by word and deed that he is for his wife and the unity of their marriage.