The Liberated Woman
Loving Your Husband With Purpose
It must be your objective as a Christian to illustrate, in a very positive manner, the love relationship between Christ and His church. One way that is accomplished is by promoting the well being of your family. The Christian woman participates in this process by loving her husband with purpose.The Bible is a book that promotes, with vigor, women’s liberation. The biblical portrait of a godly woman is not painted with—oppressive-- restrictive brushes. The godly woman is a very unrestricted—free—dare we say--liberated woman (she has been set free from her sin and set free to serve the Lord with joy). The godly woman is a woman of great worth, trustworthy, hardworking, diligent, caring, thoughtful, business wise, disciplined, merciful, creative, lovely and most of all she loves God. Her attitude and actions produce a legacy that is praiseworthy (See Proverbs 31:10-31) and demonstrates a joyful freedom.The faithful Christian woman has discovered purposeful restriction. She is a liberated woman because she submits to the God of grace.
Imagine a basketball team where one player is a “ball hog”. They take most of the shots and they seek all of the glory. Most often, the entire team is impacted in a negative way. The “show off” individual has chosen to neglect the liberating restrictions of teamwork. The result is not one “being all they can be” but instead frustration builds on the team as a whole and the individual player ends up negatively restricting their own talents and hindering the progress of the team.
Yet, it is a wonderful thing to see a team playing in unison with wise utilization of the various talents of all the players. In that environment each member of the team are able to fulfill their roles and contribute to the well being of something bigger than themselves—the good of the team.
The biblically liberated woman has not sought liberation from biblical restrictions. In fact, it is just the opposite. She has found true freedom by ordering her life according to God’s will. She is a liberated lady set free by grace to love her husband with purpose.
What is it to love your husband with purpose? It is to recognize God’s purpose in your marriage, which is to glorify God by illustrating the love relationship between Jesus Christ and His church (Ephesians 5:22-33). How does the wife love her husband with such a grand and purposeful vision? She loves her husband by a willing submission. She does so because she has first submitted her life and love to Christ. She indicates her love for Jesus by obeying His command to submit to her husband. Her response is one of love that grows out of godly purpose.The loving wife is not rebelliously seeking her own way. She recognizes that she is most free when she lives in obedience to the will of the God. His will is a good, loving, and perfect plan (Romans 8:28).
Therefore when the wife submits to her husband “as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22) she is submitting to the all wise God who is committed to her well being. That kind of purposeful submission results in the wife demonstrating respect for her husband by recognizing his God-entrusted place of responsibility.
It is essential to keep God’s purpose in view when considering your responsibility to love your husband. God has not called you to meaningless activity in your marriage but to order and purpose.The wise wife will love and respect her husband with purpose out of love and regard for God. Some of the ways in which a woman respects her husband include:
1. She will display godliness before her husband (I Peter 3:1-2). The godly woman influences her husband by demonstrating godliness before his watching eyes.
2. She will focus on being a person of godly character (I Peter 3:3-4). Godly character qualities have lasting beauty and are counted as very precious in the sight of God (4). Physical beauty is fleeting but internal beauty is both persevering and precious.
3. She will be trustworthy. The woman who loves her husband with purpose is a trustworthy woman in appearance, attitude, and actions. Her husband is not concerned that she will be unfaithful because he recognizes that she is faithful to God (see Proverbs 31:11).
4. She will do her husband good providing an arena for his success. The wise woman is diligent, creative, kind and compassionate. She works towards a well ordered home providing an arena for her husband to be successful as a leader at home and in the community (see Proverbs 31:23).
The purposeful family demonstrates the loving purposes of God to a watching world. The starting point for such family harmony is with you trusting in Christ for salvation and submitting yourself to His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Christians, filled with God’s Spirit, will have a song in their hearts, will be thankful to God, will submit to one another and will be able to love their spouse with purpose.
Ray Rhodes Jr. is founder and president of Nourished in the Word Ministries. For speaking engagements or resources please contact at 678-697-4495 or email to ray@nourishedintheword.
Loving Your Husband With Purpose
It must be your objective as a Christian to illustrate, in a very positive manner, the love relationship between Christ and His church. One way that is accomplished is by promoting the well being of your family. The Christian woman participates in this process by loving her husband with purpose.The Bible is a book that promotes, with vigor, women’s liberation. The biblical portrait of a godly woman is not painted with—oppressive-- restrictive brushes. The godly woman is a very unrestricted—free—dare we say--liberated woman (she has been set free from her sin and set free to serve the Lord with joy). The godly woman is a woman of great worth, trustworthy, hardworking, diligent, caring, thoughtful, business wise, disciplined, merciful, creative, lovely and most of all she loves God. Her attitude and actions produce a legacy that is praiseworthy (See Proverbs 31:10-31) and demonstrates a joyful freedom.The faithful Christian woman has discovered purposeful restriction. She is a liberated woman because she submits to the God of grace.
Imagine a basketball team where one player is a “ball hog”. They take most of the shots and they seek all of the glory. Most often, the entire team is impacted in a negative way. The “show off” individual has chosen to neglect the liberating restrictions of teamwork. The result is not one “being all they can be” but instead frustration builds on the team as a whole and the individual player ends up negatively restricting their own talents and hindering the progress of the team.
Yet, it is a wonderful thing to see a team playing in unison with wise utilization of the various talents of all the players. In that environment each member of the team are able to fulfill their roles and contribute to the well being of something bigger than themselves—the good of the team.
The biblically liberated woman has not sought liberation from biblical restrictions. In fact, it is just the opposite. She has found true freedom by ordering her life according to God’s will. She is a liberated lady set free by grace to love her husband with purpose.
What is it to love your husband with purpose? It is to recognize God’s purpose in your marriage, which is to glorify God by illustrating the love relationship between Jesus Christ and His church (Ephesians 5:22-33). How does the wife love her husband with such a grand and purposeful vision? She loves her husband by a willing submission. She does so because she has first submitted her life and love to Christ. She indicates her love for Jesus by obeying His command to submit to her husband. Her response is one of love that grows out of godly purpose.The loving wife is not rebelliously seeking her own way. She recognizes that she is most free when she lives in obedience to the will of the God. His will is a good, loving, and perfect plan (Romans 8:28).
Therefore when the wife submits to her husband “as to the Lord” (Ephesians 5:22) she is submitting to the all wise God who is committed to her well being. That kind of purposeful submission results in the wife demonstrating respect for her husband by recognizing his God-entrusted place of responsibility.
It is essential to keep God’s purpose in view when considering your responsibility to love your husband. God has not called you to meaningless activity in your marriage but to order and purpose.The wise wife will love and respect her husband with purpose out of love and regard for God. Some of the ways in which a woman respects her husband include:
1. She will display godliness before her husband (I Peter 3:1-2). The godly woman influences her husband by demonstrating godliness before his watching eyes.
2. She will focus on being a person of godly character (I Peter 3:3-4). Godly character qualities have lasting beauty and are counted as very precious in the sight of God (4). Physical beauty is fleeting but internal beauty is both persevering and precious.
3. She will be trustworthy. The woman who loves her husband with purpose is a trustworthy woman in appearance, attitude, and actions. Her husband is not concerned that she will be unfaithful because he recognizes that she is faithful to God (see Proverbs 31:11).
4. She will do her husband good providing an arena for his success. The wise woman is diligent, creative, kind and compassionate. She works towards a well ordered home providing an arena for her husband to be successful as a leader at home and in the community (see Proverbs 31:23).
The purposeful family demonstrates the loving purposes of God to a watching world. The starting point for such family harmony is with you trusting in Christ for salvation and submitting yourself to His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18). Christians, filled with God’s Spirit, will have a song in their hearts, will be thankful to God, will submit to one another and will be able to love their spouse with purpose.
Ray Rhodes Jr. is founder and president of Nourished in the Word Ministries. For speaking engagements or resources please contact at 678-697-4495 or email to ray@nourishedintheword.
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