Love and respect

DEVOTION

PROVERBS

LOVE AND RESPECT

Prov 25:24

24 Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.

NIV

This is not any different than 21:9 which we covered fairly completely with the title of Harmony. The whole idea is in fact harmony. It has been said in our post-modern culture that if mommy isn’t happy the whole house is not happy. This implies the wife sets the mood of the whole house. It emphasizes the idea that a woman is the lead person in the household. She is in charge of everything and the man simply has no say in any matter. In many cases through conversations we find this is a common situation in many marriages. It may well have been perpetuated by the feminization of our culture including so many movies with a heroine rather than a hero. The bra burning movement of the 70’s might have been the beginning of this move toward this equal rights for woman in this country and has been moving toward a closer agenda of superior rights. This is not a judgement on our culture or bashing women in any way, but merely a commentary of how things have been progressing away from what appears to be a standard God established. As unpopular as it may be in today’s culture, God holds the man responsible for his family and if responsible than he has to have the final authority. But this does not mean it automatically makes the woman his subordinate. God intended man and woman should walk through life as partners, side by side as equals but with different functions. Yet he did establish the man to be the head of the household, but also loving his wife, willing to put his life down for her, as Christ has put his life down for us, being the head of the church. So then this quarrelsome, with contention or bawling wife has no place within the body of Christ. If we men are to live according to our responsibility in the body of Christ as well as in our marriage then the woman should also live in accordance with her responsibly and not quarrel with her husband, but rather respect him. If there is no respect it may well create this quarrelsome attitude. But it is also the man’s duty to not run off to the corner of the roof, but deal with the situation, be the head of the house. It still all comes back to the title of 21:9, harmony. Yet it is also a matter of mutual love and respect.