What A Man Says
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Posted: March 11, 2023
Author: Christopher Brock 1 Peter 3:7, New Living Translation “In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered.” |
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As I grew up, one of the most important lessons that I saw demonstrated by my parents was that of respecting and honoring women. My parents taught me a valuable lesson as they demonstrated this principle. Even though I have not always lived out this lesson, somewhere in my mind I have known that it was the right thing to do. I can remember watching how my father treated my mother. I watched him open doors for her, consider her in decision making, let her go before him, and seek to do the things that she liked.
In our modern times, in our modern world, a lot of the behaviors and actions, once common among men, are being forgotten. So many men are not being taught these ideas, and so many women are growing up without having known what it means to be respected and honored. In fact, there are those in the world who say that when a man respects and honors a woman it is actually insulting to her, because it is demonstrating that the man feels the woman is less than he is. However, the Bible tells us that, as husbands, we are to honor, understand, and treat our wives as equals.
Honor, in this sense, literally means to assign value to something. When we honor someone, it means that we are saying that this person is valuable and is worthy of our attention and our affection. When the Bible tells us that we are to understand our wives, it means that we are to have a knowledge and understanding of them. In order to do this, we must make an effort to learn about them. We must try to understand what they like, what they don’t like, and to know their hopes, dreams, and desires. The Bible tells us that we are to treat our wives as equal partners—as co-inheritors—of the grace that God has given to us. An heir is one who has something given to them from another. Not because they have earned it, but because the person giving it desired them to have it and gave it to them by their will.
Clearly, we see that the Bible teaches husbands to love and treat their wives with the highest level of honor and respect. In fact, the Bible tells husbands, “love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” (Ephesians 5:25, NIV) If you are a wife today, pray that your husband will know Christ. Pray that he will know Him more deeply each and every day. Pray that he will learn about what it means to love you, just as Christ loves the church. Pray that he would begin to know what it means to give himself up for you. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help him learn to honor you, to understand you, and to treat you as an equal. If you are reading this, and you are not yet married, I believe that the Lord wants to encourage you to do the exact same thing. Just because God has not yet brought that man into your life yet, does not mean you cannot pray for him. Pray that God is preparing his heart, and drawing him closer to Himself. Pray that he would learn what it means—even before he knows you—to honor his wife, to know her, and to treat her as his partner.
And always remember this truth: if you know Christ as your savior and Lord, then you are loved, you are honored, and you are valued by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. The value your life holds does not come from a man. And, in fact, a man should honor you as he understands the value you have because of who you are in God’s eyes.
