Honor

Wives, submit to your husbands, as to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church; and He is the savior of the body.  Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so le the wives be to  their own husbands in everything.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by thhe word, that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.  So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.
Ephesians 5: 22-29 NKJV

It's a age old question for those seeking a relationship or marriage.  I've asked it myself of a few Godly brothers who have defied the odds and been married for mmany years.  For according to the American Physchological Association, between 40  and 50 percent of marriages in these United States end in divorce.  I know of which I speak, for my own parents were divorced when I was still pretty young.  The answer one of my friends gave to my question has stayed with me.  When asked just how he and his wife has been married for 50 years his answer was simple, "Divorce wasn't an option."  We can learn alot from this wisdom.  It was a different time in this country when my friend married his lovely wife, in that day, divorce was certainly seen as a social stigma.  I believe that this is just why many couples remained married even through abuse and strife, there was no other option.  I don't need to revisit the damage that can be potentially done to children of divorced parents.  I've been a witness to this struggle first hand.  So I ask myself, how have we come this far where the institution of marriage has come under such an attack?  Well, I believe that there are more than a few reasons.  I suppose the number one reason is we have gotten away from the family structure.  

And He answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the begining 'made them male and female,' "and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?  "So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore, what God has joined together, let no man seperate."  They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and then put her away?"  He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the begining it was not so."
Matthew 19: 4-8 NKJV

Notice here Jesus' instruction on divorce when challanged by the religious authorities.  "But from the begining it was not so."  Therefore, I feel that it is safe to proclaim that God is not a huge fan of divorce among His children.  Yes, I know I'll tweak off more than a few womens libbers out there by taking this stand.  However, my stand is not political, but inspired and created by God.  One of the biggest arguments womens rights advocates use to defend the institution of divorce is that it gives a woman protection against a bad marriage.  Well, I'm here to tell you that if husband and wife both followed the sanctity of marriage as  found in Ephesians chapter 5, we could eliminate a good amount of bad marriages.  Looking at this scripture, we can ask the question, just how did Christ love the church?  Folks, Jesus Christ GAVE HIS VERY LIFE for His church.  How many husbands out there would give their lives for the wives they claim to love?  Want to know about love, people?  Consider just why Jesus gave Himself on that cross for us.   He endured the torture and shame, for us.  THIS is the love that the apostle Paul was refering to in Ephesians 5.  A love that is unselfish, considering others before ones own life.  If we can take one verse from Pauls teaching, it is in Ephesians 5:29, "He who loves his wife loves himself."

~Scott~