August 18 | What is God’s Order For the Family?
Ephesians 5:25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
God’s order in the family is for a husband to love his wife as Christ does the church, the wife to submit to her husband as unto Jesus and for the children to obey their parents. When the family is structured with God’s order it is the greatest example of God’s Kingdom on the earth. Henry Drummond said, “The family circle is the supreme conductor of Christianity.”
When the family structure is corrupted it causes many problems to a society. For example, studies have shown that children who grow up without their father in the home are 5x more likely to commit suicide, 32x more likely to be homeless, 20x more likely of being in prison and 9x more likely to drop out of high school. The leading causes to fatherless homes are sex outside of marriage and divorce.
Likewise, current research proves that same-sex families are just as destructive as fatherless homes. The children are more likely to be depressed, arrested and 10x more likely to be molested. Plus, over 3,500 children a day in the U.S. are murdered in “Abortion Mills.” And the number one reason for abortion is that the pregnancy was an inconvenience. As a result, over 50 million children have been slaughtered in the wombs of their mothers because both parents lacked love, self-control and human decency- they didn’t understand God’s purpose for family and sexuality.
The best solution and hope for today’s broken generation is for every disciple to contribute to building a God-honoring society based on God’s principles for the family.
Paul took seventeen verses to outline the blessed family in the book of Ephesians. Please take some time to prayerfully read his instructions for yourself and determine to have a “God-kind-of-family!” Ephesians 5:21-6:4, “21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”
32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. 2 “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— 3 “so that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.” 4 Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord.”
Reflection
Action
- Repent if you have ever done things in regards to the family outside of God’s plan.
- Study God’s Word and learn to structure your family according to the Father’s heart.
- Ask God to make your family an example for all to see and be encouraged by!