I am going to continue my discourse, on Eph. 5. As you may infer from the title, I am now addressing the ladies of the audience. I will indeed try to keep this short as the passage does indeed address the wife quite briefly:
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. (Ephesians 5:22-23) and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
(Ephesians 5:33b)
I wish wives, wives-to-be, and ladies in general to observe this, "submit... to the Lord." This is quite simply what you are told here. For the fact that I am in fact a gentleman, I cannot boast knowledge on all that you may draw from this allegory. But you must understand this command. Ladies, this submission is quite simply a complete surrender and adoration of the one and true love of your lives.
But first, lets us not continue to the end ere we have dwelt on the beginning. Lets us thither with this question, what is the ideal sort of a man to marry? Historically, it has been universally accepted that this type of man is Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. Well for this, ladies, we find a man perfect. A man full of honour, a man of love and devotion. A man who worships her whom he loves. And in this we find his greatest fault. That is the very reason why there is no "real" Mr. Darcy. And it is his greatest strength that fails him completely. For you see, if infact the man you ladies love and wed worships you, he will fail you. And he does not infact love you chief in his soul; but rather, he loves himself. He will only wish to satisfy himself, for now, with your love, but when that fails him, he will fail you as he will seek that which does. And on that note, we might easily turn to the one gentleman who now turns every lady's heart, or so it seems. Let us look to Edward Cullen, a man so far beneath even Darcy. For you see ladies, Edward did not give himself up for his love as you suppose. He infact won his prize by ultimately drinking her blood, the which he denied himself for love, and still, in the end, took the heart of her after whom he lusted. Edward himself lusted and was a man of his lusts, he thusly, in the end, gave way to those lusts. So here we have two men who are not perfect.
So now, we come to the point. you ladies ought instead submit to Christ as your perfect bridegroom. He is in all ways perfect, unfailing in love (Heb 13:5), giving of Himself; that is, humble even to death (Philippians 2:8), very goodness Himself (Psalm 34:8; 100:5; 135:3; 145:9 and Lamentations 3:25). Ladies, seek a husband after the image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). For he will be humble, he will give himself completely for you, and he will be good, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control"(Galatians 5:22-23). He will love you truly for he truly knows how to love. As He loves Christ completely, he can fully love you without giving himself to the impediments of his own flesh (Gal. 5:24). Now ladies, you will never find a Darcy to satisfy you. You will never find an Edward to love you. And any man you wed will fail you at some point. So then, know that your greatest bridegroom is Christ. Love Him, adore Him, seek after Him with all your heart.
Soli Deo Gloria
But that is not to say "never marry". I'm still hoping I'll find a wife who loves the Lord, and that's the point. Find a spouse who loves the Lord more than he/she does you.
ReplyDeleteYes! That is exactly my point! That is, that ladies seek after a man who is in the image of Christ rather than in the image of Darcy or Edward. And ladies are to keep in mind that Jesus is really the only truly perfect bridegroom. Ladies, if thither art thou called, then marry. I am all for marriage... hehehe especially now actually. :D Just be sure to marry a man who is being crafted after the image of our Lord and not after an idol.
ReplyDeleteSoli Deo Gloria
Gentlemen, I agree. As a lady I am going to comment. (that's just an excuse to go through with my bad habit of commenting on everything, which sadly always turns into preaching)
ReplyDeleteSadly, many women fall into the bad habit of becoming addicted to emotions and heroes in romance stories. We women are crazy in wanting a larger than life hero to come our way. We woman need to realize that we have no need for another Saviour in our life, Christ is and always will be our Saviour. No man, can be the Christ in our lives, nor should they ever be held in such high esteem, or loved as much as our Lord Jesus is.
Women need to understand firmly that no joy, no comfort, no reassurance, can ever be found outside of Christ. They won't find what they need in mere man, only by first loving God, and keeping Him first can we enjoy the love found in a marriage. For without the love from our Saviour, this love is meaningless, (sorry to be so blunt and harsh).
Only through Christ can we, both men and women, learn to love our significant other rightly.
And yes, most assuredly, character is not to be found from these romance books, movies, etc. Only thing that comes from them is larger than life, unrealistic dreams, and forming of idols. We then manage to cheapen and put down our brothers in Christ by not appreciating their true godly character. Same goes for men and their issues with stuff. lol When we look at the bible we see how mankind really is, wretched, imperfect, sinfull, unrighteous, wicked, fallen men. (I know, not at all like darcy). It's God in our brothers, their love and devotion, and walk with Him that is to be admired.
So... right on brothers. :-)
I just want to thank you, Patrick, for your post. To PilotMissionary, thank you for commenting on his post. Both of you have spoken truth regarding this subject, and I must say that it's refreshing to read such clear headed, Christ centered thoughts.
ReplyDeleteNow, Pilot, I want to be fare. I did state in my post that I am an avid supporter of Austen's novels... I would argue that, as a guy, I am one of the biggest Janites out there. Indeed, I should probably, to be fair to our readers, state that I think these hero/romance stories can be good; that is, the old stories of chivalry... well, just thinking about La Mort DeArthur... there can be better choices. lol Anyways, I am saying that it is perfectly natural for ladies to be looking for that larger than life hero (Rom 8:28). They key is, that this larger than life hero is Christ. And it is entirely valid for you ladies to look for a larger than life man to wed. He will be in the image of Christ, regenerated unto that image and regenerating. I exhort you ladies! Don't give up! Keep looking for the man of God, and don't compromise. Don't settle for second best. Men, you who feel that you are second best, you have a call, if in Christ, to be larger than life! You are called to be like Christ! You must completely give your selves up to Christ, you must become nothing! A slave to Christ!
ReplyDeleteSoli Deo Gloria