Man Up - Part 1

This one goes out to the men. I've been thinking about this topic for a while. I'm just now getting around to writing about it. I know as a man I've got a lot of work to do. I fill a lot of roles. I'm a husband, a father, a brother, an uncle, a friend, and most important, a child of God. Specifically I want to write about the role of husbands in this post.

Husbands, we've got work to do. Yea, I know. I said that already. But it bears repeating. We've got work to do. Ephesians 5:22-33 talks about the role between husbands and wives. Now too many men read the part about wives submitting to their husbands and stop there. If there's one thing you need to know, it's never to take a scripture out of context. Especially one like this. Or you may be sleeping on the couch for a very long time.

Read further. Verse 25 says, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her..." As husbands, it's our duty to love our wives in such a way that they will want to love us back. Not so much because they made a vow to do so. Vows can be broken. Love your wife as Christ loves the Church. How does Christ love the Church?

He died for us. He served us. He gave us the example of being a servant leader. Gentlemen, here's the answer. Be the servant leader of your family. Lead in a way that you are serving them. By doing this, you will be an example to the rest of your family, perhaps most importantly for your kids. But we'll get to that in the next post.

Love your wife as Christ loves the Church. Christ did not oppress the Church. He does not force His love on us. He does not make us do things because He said so. He never tells us to do something and not give us the help necessary to accomplish it.

The story is told of a man and wife who went to a seminar on this very subject. However, the speaker preached very heavily on the wife submitting part and hardly at all on the husbands loving their wives part. The more he talked the more upset the wife became and the happier the husband became. So on the way home the wife was in the passenger seat fuming.

The husband finally broke the silence and said, "So what did you think?" No answer from his wife. They kept driving. Till he asked again.

"Well, what'd you think? I thought it was great." His wife sat silent staring angrily ahead. Finally they arrived at home. He decided to put his foot down, so to speak.

"Listen here woman! The Bible says you're supposed to submit to me! From now on I'm the captain and you have to listen to me and do what I say! Is that clear?!"

He didn't see his wife for about two weeks. Finally, after two weeks, one eye opened up just enough so he could see his wife a little bit.

My fellow men, let's love our wives in a way that they love us back as much if not more than we love them. Let's help them clean the house. Let's help them take care of the kids. Let's take them out every so often. Let's buy them flowers. Let's love them.