Honor in Marriage
I would like to address the subject of honor in marriage. In the Bible, the word honor means valuable or to esteem highly. If we love Jesus and honor Him, then we will love our spouse and honor them! If you are not honoring your spouse, you are not honoring Jesus. You can’t have a love relationship with the Lord and not have one with the one to whom you are married. Why is this?
Let’s look at Ephesians 5:30, 31 (KJV). Verse 30 says "we are members of His Body, of His flesh and of His bones." Verse 31 says “for this reason, a man shall leave his father and his mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh." According to these verses, FIRST we are members of Him. For this reason, a man is joined to his wife and they are one flesh. Husbands and wives, you are not two anymore, but one flesh. How can you be divided? You are one! Even more, we are one with Him! Members of His Body! Can His Body be divided? It should not be so! In Ephesians 5:32, the writer tells us that is a great mystery, but he is speaking concerning Christ and the called out ones. He is showing us that our marriage is supposed to be a picture of Christ and us.
Ephesians 5:22 says wives are to submit as “unto the Lord” and Ephesians 5:25 says that husbands are to love their wives as “Christ loved the called out ones.” Philippians 2:2, 3 reads like this: “Fulfill you my joy, that you be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem (or honor) others better than themselves.”
God says in Psalm 133 that where there is unity (which means to become one), He commands a blessing! You see, staying in unity is not just something we do because we see it in the Word and we think it is a good idea. It is much more than that. It is a force! It comes from honoring God and honoring what He honors. The Bible says in 1 Peter 3:7 that unity assures us of answered prayer.
How can we do this? How can we walk this out? By abiding in Him. John 15:5 tells us that as we abide in Him and He in us, we will bear much fruit, for without Him, we can do nothing. What fruit is He talking about? The fruit of the Spirit – His fruit! Galatians 5:22, 23. Fruit is a natural product of relationship.
Honoring Him and each other is not difficult if we abide in Him.
Honor Jesus by staying in living connection with Him and being
always ready to hear, and His honor will flow out of you for each
other.
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A New and Living Way
Ephesians 5:21 says we are to submit one to another in the fear of
the Lord. I like the way the Amplified Version states it: "Be subject
to one another out of reverence for Christ (the Messiah, the
Anointed One)." Colossians 3:17 (Amplified) says: "And whatever you do
(no matter what it is) in word or deed, do everything in the name of
the Lord Jesus, and in (dependence upon) His Person, giving praise
to God the Father through Him." Both of these scriptures precede the
verses that tell wives to submit to their husbands and husbands to
love their wives.
A New and Living
Way