If our theology isn’t practical it isn’t true biblical theology. That being said, you can be practical & not biblical.
I’ve been really challenged lately at the call husbands have to their families. As a Pastor I must lead my families well. The church is the new family of God and the correlation between the church & the family.
My marriage must reflect the covenantal relationship between God & his people.
God’s design for marriage
Genesis 2:18-25 says “Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.”
Love our wives sacrificially
Ephesians 5:25 speaks into this by saying “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.”
Be faithful to our wives alone
Luke 16:18 states “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.” Titus 1:6 adds to this biblical call to faithfulness “if anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.”
Understand our wives
This can be so tricky for many men. but 1 Peter 3:7 says “Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.”
Nurture our wives
The Apostle Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 5:28-29 “In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church.”
Provide for our wives
I know I’m quoting alot of the Apostle Paul (technically its all God anyways lol, but in 1 Timothy 5:8 The Apostle tells his fear friend “But if anyone does not provide for his relatives, and especially for members of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.”
We are not only called to love our wives, but for those of us who have children we need to bring your family on mission.
Love your kids as the father
1 John 3:1challenges me to the core it says “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.”
Train our kids in the word
Paul writes to the church in Ephesus in Ephesians 6:4 urging “Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.”
Model Gospel living
1 Corinthians 11:1 tells us to “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
Teach our kids to obey
This is a heart issue Proverbs 6:20 “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching.”
Lovingly discipline our kids
Its not popular, but easential. Hebrews 12:7 says “It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?” Also in Proverbs 19:18 “Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.”
Pray for our kids
Finally Ephesians 1:18-19 “having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might.”
I pray the same for you as I do for me, that God would grant you the grace to be the Godly father & husband my family need of me.
MJ WANT 