The Reverence of a Wife
As a Christian wife, would you say you are always thankful for what the Lord brings into your life? Have there been times you wondered if God was in control or if He was really giving you what was best? Yet, in spite of the trials God allows, you know the right response is to thank Him and accept them as part of God’s training. You know it is wrong to complain for He is God and you want to fear the Lord as He said to do. (Col. 3:22; 1 Peter 2:17).
Yet, the same Greek word used in these verses of the fear of God is found in Ephesians 5:33 of a wife’s attitude toward her husband. It says simply, “and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” The word is used 93 times in the New Testament and has a broad meaning of fears to shun and fears to embrace. Only here it is translated ‘reverence.’
Of course, a husband is not the Lord. He makes many mistakes, is insensitive far too often, fails to love you or at least to express love to you when you need it. Yet, the Lord still commands you to reverence him, to view him, in a sense, as you view the Lord.
This is explained in 1 Peter 3:6- “Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.” Sarah called Abraham ‘lord’ even after he asked her to lie about being his wife wherever they traveled, something that would endanger her but protect him. How could she respect him for that?
Sarah’s secret was her large view of God. The previous verse states, “For after this manner in the old time the holy women also, who trusted in God, adorned themselves, being in subjection unto their own husbands:” Sarah, and other holy women of the Bible, trusted God to be sovereign, even in their husbands’ imperfections. They believed God was so big that He could take even the mistakes of their husbands and work them for His glory. They were ‘not afraid’ of the consequences of trusting Him. Their job then was to pray, trust, appeal, and, yes, reverence them as the heads of their homes.
The opposite response is expressed in Proverbs 14:1 “Every wise woman buildeth her house: but the foolish plucketh it down with her hands.” The idea of this last phrase seems to be, ‘a foolish woman fears the consequences of her husband’s decisions and takes matters into her own hands.’ She stops reverencing him because she forgets that God is bigger than his decisions. In thinking she can handle it better than he did, she actually attempts to take the situation from the hands of God. Which kind of wife will you be?