Now here is a word we don’t hear so much. Living in our promiscuous society, we ought to look for opportunities to use words like chaste, chastity, and chasteness. Great words. (I’m not really suggesting we wear them written on t-shirts or on the seat of sweatpants, but it would be novel.) Now what do these words mean? (Here comes the dictionary.) Technically, to be chaste is to be sexually pure; not indulging in unlawful sexual activity. It means virtuous, not indecent, modest, and can describe general moral excellence. It is Continue reading ‘Chastity’
Monthly Archive for May, 2007
Page 3 of 6
Afflictions scour us of our rust. Adversity, like winter weather, is of use to kill those vermin which the summer of prosperity is apt to produce and nourish. -Dr. Arrowsmith
A true believer lives upon free grace as his necessary food. And indeed, he who has really tasted the sweetness of grace, can live upon nothing else. -Augustus Toplady
It is indeed a great piece of self-denial to be silent when we have enough to say, and provocation to say it; but if we do thus control our tongues, out of a pure regard for peace and love, it will turn to a good account and will be an evidence for us that we are Christ’s disciples, having learned to deny ourselves. It is better to yield to our brother, who is, or has been, or may be, our friend, than by angry speaking to yield to the devil, who has been, and is, and ever will be, our sworn enemy. -Matthew Henry, The Quest for Meekness and Quietness of Spirit
I’ve written a bunch on the duty of wives to respect their husbands, but as I live through the different stages of my own marriage, it astounds me how applicable God’s instructions are to all of us all the time. So I’m assuming another whack at it can’t hurt. New wives learn to respect their husbands to start off on the right foot; young wives with children find that their husbands need respect more than ever as they learn how to be a godly head of a home, as the two of them bring up their children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; middle-aged wives can delight in respecting their husbands as they navigate through the empty nest years. And I am assuming that old age will only be better. God’s commands are not a burden; and the woman who has been respecting her husband for a few decades has made a significant contribution toward the peace, comfort, and joy of her marriage. All that respect is like money in the bank that is drawing a lot of interest. God always blesses obedience, and a woman is obeying God when she respects her husband. In many situations where marriage tangles are difficult to sort out, respect will only be a help to the situation, not a hindrance. And I do think some husbands are running on fumes and have been for many years. A little respect would probably bowl them right over.
The Bible tells wives to see that they respect their own husbands. I’d like to point out a couple of obvious things about both passages (in Eph. 5:22,33) and Col. 3:18). First of all, it tells the wives to see that they are doing this. It is not given to the husbands to see that their wives are doing this. Wives are to monitor themselves on this duty. Second, wives are to submit to and respect their own husbands, not anyone else’s. This is not a command to women in general to be submissive to men in general. No, you are to be in submission to one man: your husband. This protects you from all those other men. This is why I encourage unmarried women to think hard about whether they respect a man before they agree to marry him. Will you be able to respect him in five, ten, and twenty years? Women can marry men they do not respect, and they do it all the time. This means the command will be burdensome to them. But a woman who marries a man she can look up to, trust, and admire, will not find it a challenge to respect her husband.
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