It was my first message of a three part series on the family today. I have spent much of the last two weeks preparing for the day, with my wife's question from a week ago resonating in my mind, "Are you going to say anything new?"
The answer is "no". For awhile it was, "I'll try", though muffled within me.
My studies took me down several paths including reading statistical data from George Barna about the deteriorating family, reading a colleciton of magazine articles about the family in crisis, and reviewing several recent books on the family, including John MacArthur's, The Fulfilled Family. There was also the review of every New Testament passage that referred to the family as well as a search through the Proverbs for "tidbits" of truth regarding the family. A study of the early chapters of Genesis reminded me that marriage was God's idea to begin with.
Where I ended up "camping" was in Ephesians 5:22-33, a pretty standard reference for talking about the relationship between husbands and wives, and how they are to mirror Christ's relationship to His church. Nothing revolutionary. Nothing clever. Nothing new.
But something true...God's unassailable truth for twenty-first century believers trying to figure out to make marriage work.
Husbands and wives are potentially a picture of Christ's love relationship with believers. His love is characterized in these verses as having the components of sacrificial giving and unconditional care. Such love inspires us to submit to His headship and to repsect His leadership and ministry to us, His church.
Husbands and wives, two thousand years later, are called to the same standard of love for one another.
It's not new, but it works.
The world is watching.
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