|
 |
| God's Law of
Order |
|
God’s law of order is set
forth in I Corinthians 11:1-3. It reads: “Be ye followers of
me, even as I also am of Christ. Now I praise you, brethren,
that ye remember me in all things, and keep the ordinances, as
I delivered them to you. But I would have you know that the
head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the
man; and the head of Christ is God.” His ordinance is
simple, direct, and very effective. God’s law of order is
God, Christ, Man, Woman.
The failure of our culture to take note of that law and make
it work has resulted in chaos and confusion about marriage and
how it works.
First of all, God is over all. It is by His rule and authority
that everything exists. It all starts and ends with Him. He
“giveth to all life, and breath, and all things,” and “in
Him we live, and move, and have our very being” (Acts
17:25;28). It is right and proper that God should be first and
over all. In Him is not only our life, but the authority by
which it is controlled. After all, our Creator ought to know
best how He wanted what He created to be and how He wanted it
to act.
If marriage doesn’t start with God and His laws, it is
likely destined for failure.
Christ is the head of man. Jesus is the Son of God (Matthew
16:17). He is the force by which God, the Father, created all
things. “The same was in the beginning with God. All things
were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that
was made” (John 1:2-3). Furthermore, “He is before all
things, and by Him all things consist” (Colossians 1:17).
Common sense demands that whatever He says should be of not
only interest to us, but of vital concern. He is not only the
force of creation, He came and lived as a man, thus becoming
our great example for how man should live. He “was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without sin” (Hebrews
4:15) and He “suffered for us, leaving us an example that ye
should follow his steps, Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in His mouth” (I Peter 2:21-22). “He the great
example is, and pattern for me.”
Marriage is so close to the heart of God that we are told that
“husbands should love their wives, even as Christ also loved
the church and gave Himself up for it” (Ephesians 5:25).
Marriage and the church are the two great institutions of our
God.
Man is next in line. He is said to be “the head of the wife,
even as Christ is the head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23).
Man is the spiritual head of the wife. While that fact doesn’t
set well with today’s society, that in no way alters the
reality and necessity of it. As the spiritual head of the
family, the man has certain sober responsibilities, one of
which is to bring up his children “in the nurture and
admonition of the Lord” (Ephesians 6:4). Man’s abdication
of his role as the spiritual head has been the cause of many
marital difficulties, one of which is that the woman, in many
instances, is left with duties and responsibilities to which
she was not originally suited.
The failure of men to accept the obligations in God’s law of
order has done much damage to marriage in this age.
The woman is to be the “help-meet” for the man. She never
functions at a better level of love and efficiency than when
she is being that for which she was designed–helping man to
become all that he can. “Therefore as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in
every thing.” It has always been God’s design:“For in
this manner in the old time, the holy women also, who trusted
in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own
husbands” (I Peter 3:5). The failure of wives to respect
this fact and “to be discreet, chaste, keepers at home,
good, obedient to their own husbands,” has brought disaster
to many homes in our age. Being a “keeper at home” doesn’t
argue that a woman can’t work outside the home (see Prov.
31: 10f), but if she cannot do so and still be a keeper at
home, she would do well to quit her job rather than quitting
God’s order. Untold amount of damage has been done to homes
because of a neglect to follow God’s law of order.
And please let it be carefully observed that it no more
demeans the value and praiseworthiness of the woman when she
is to be in subjection to the husband than it does for Christ
who deliberately placed Himself in subjection to God in God’s
law of order.
The home cannot and will not be all that it should be without
proper respect for God’s law of order.
Dee Bowman
|
|
Copyright (C)
2008
Southside Church of Christ
All rights reserved.
|
|
|
