Tuesday, August 13, 2019

PT-6 (and last) "The matter of Submission" (Eph. 5:22a)


SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 8/13/2019 10:47 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                          Focus:  PT-6 “The Matter of Submission”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                     Reference:  Ephesians 5:22a

 

            Message of the verse:  Wives, be subject to your own husbands,”

 

            We want to continue for at least a little while talking more about the older women who would be examples to the younger women of the church to be submissive to their husbands.  Paul writes the following “older women likewise are to be reverent to their behavior, not malicious gossips, not enslaved to much wine teaching what is good, that they may encourage the young women to live their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure workers at home, kind, being subject [hupotasso] to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored” (Titus 2:3-5).   As we look at our country today we see that one thing that is lacking is that younger wives should be workers in their homes, taking care of their children, not just taking them to some kind of day care place where they could be taught the ways of the world.  It is no wonder the things that are godly have been falling apart for a long time in our country.  It seemed to start after the Second World War when women had to go to work to help build war supplies, and then when it was over women in many cases continued to work outside of the home. 

 

            John MacArthur writes “The term ‘workers at home’ in Titus 2:5 is from the compound Greek word oikourgos, which is derived from oikos [house] and a form of ergon (work).  Ergon, however, does not simply refer to labor in general but often connotes the idea of a particular job or employment.  It is the word Jesus used when He said, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to accomplish His work’ (John 4:34, emphasis added) and, on another occasion, ‘I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou has given Me do do’ (17:4, emphasis added).  It is the word the Holy Spirit used in commanding the church at Antioch to ‘set apart for Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them’ (Acts 13:2, emphasis added).  Paul used the word in relation to Epaphroditus, who ‘came close to death for the work of Christ’ (Phil. 2:30, emphasis added) and in relation to the work of faithful Christian leaders in Thessalonica (1 Thess. 5:13).  In other words, it is not that a woman is simply to keep busy in the home but that the home is the basic place of her employment, her divinely assigned job.”  MacArthur later states that “God’s standard is for the wife and mother to work inside, not outside, the home.  For a mother to get a job outside the home in order to send the children to a Christian school is to misunderstand her husband’s role as provider as well as her own duty to the family.  The good training her children receive in the Christian school may be counteracted by her lack of full commitment to the biblical standards for motherhood. 

 

            I believe that I have said enough about the fact that the Bible does teach that a woman’s work is inside the home, and am thankful that my mother, and then my wife, and then my daughter have all followed these Biblical teachings.

 

            As we look at many cults today we see why younger people are attracted to them is because they seem to show a family-like group in which they feel the acceptance and love they never received at home and this was frequently due to the mother’s absence from the home. 

            Paul talks a great deal about widows in his letter to Timothy, the first letter to Timothy.  The widows are to be taken care of by the church, so that the women who are widows do not have to work outside the home.  Paul even states that if a women who is a young widow has the opportunity to re-marry then she should do this.  I realize that many, many churches in our society today do not follow this practice.  Perhaps it is because of a lack of faith or just not bothering to follow what Paul has written here.

 

            On more quote on mothers working outside the home, even though I said that I was done with it:  “Just as with drinking of alcoholic beverages, the Bible does not specifically forbid a wife to work outside the home.   But the biblical priorities are so clear that they can only be obeyed or rejected openly, and each woman must choose how she will honor those priorities.”

 

            At the beginning of this section some six SD’s ago we stated that there will be time to look at the rest of the verses associated with this section and we will begin, Lord willing to do that in our next SD.  We have three more main sections which are very short to look at and I hope to cover them in two days.  Let me close with a statement that I have on my prayer list that I hope will be effective for the subject we have been looking at today:  “The Lord always has the last word, and it will not be darkness.  We should never about in the darkness what God has taught us in the light.”  This quote comes from Warren Wiersbe, a favorite author of mine.

 

            My Steps of Faith for Today:  My step of faith for today is to trust that the Lord will use these past six SD’s to give encouragement to those who read them along with obedience to the Scriptures that they came from.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust that the Lord will continue to teach me humility as I study His Word each day.

 

Today’s quotation comes from one of my favorite Presidents, Abraham Lincoln who said “Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

 

8/13/2019 11:33 AM

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