WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO HONOR?
Praise God, we don’t have to live in the dark. God shows us clearly in His Word how he wants us to live as a married couple. Because marriage is a glorious picture of Christ and His church, we are to show this picture to the world through our marriage.
Therefore, wives are to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord. Even more than that, Ephesians 5:33 reminds us that we are not only to submit, but show honor to our husbands. This is a step up and something many women are not used to doing in our humanistic society. It means to show reverential awe and fear.
However, 1 Peter tells husbands to also show honor to their wives. But it’s a different kind of honor. Let’s read the Scripture: “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them (your wives) according to knowledge, giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.”
The word used this time means “value, esteem of the highest degree, dignity, precious.” It is the same word used of the “preciousness” of Christ (1 Peter 2:7). Husbands should come into marriage with knowledge and understanding of how to treat their wives. Many men are ignorant because of the brainwashing of feminism. Feminism takes away the beauty of femininity. They pressure women to be like men. Therefore, when men no longer see women as a prized possession to be protected and cared for, they do not know how to function correctly.
Husbands are to esteem their wife as the weaker vessel. Now I know some women don’t like to be put in that category. But this is the truth. I think I am a strong woman physically, but I am not as strong as men. Men mostly have 50 percent more brute strength than women. They are built to have more muscle, broader shoulders, and stronger physique to lift heavy weights, do hard work, provide, and protect.
I like Fenton’s translation which says: “assigning honour to their FEMININE NATURE, as to a weaker vessel.” To get back to God’s plan, it works both ways. We as wives show awe and honor to our husbands. The a more a man walks in manliness, the easier it is to show this honor.
Conversely, our husbands are to treat us with dignity and as they would their most precious possession. The more we embrace and walk in our femininity, the easier it is for our husbands to treat us this way.
Be blessed today, Nancy Campbell
Painting by Bessie Pease Gutmann
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