Ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands….
Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with
them according to knowledge, giving honour
unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and
as being heirs together of the grace of life; that
your prayers be not hindered (1 Peter 3:1, 7).
The Word says that husbands are to honor
their wives, treating them with care and kindness
and tenderness.
It also says for wives to honor their own husbands
by submitting to them. That does not mean to be
under their thumb and to follow their orders. That
is not being submissive. That is being dominated.
Wives are supposed to submit to their husbands’
honoring of them.
First Peter 3:7 says that husbands should dwell
with their wives “according to knowledge.” This
knowledge is knowledge of God’s Word. Husbands
and wives are to dwell with each other in honor as
God has explained it in His Word, not according to
some religious tradition.
For too long, women have been relegated to second-
class citizenship in the kingdom of God simply
because proud, foolish men have not understood
what the New Testament really teaches about honor.
In their ignorance and arrogance, such men have
built dishonorable religious systems that bind up the
handmaidens of the Lord.
Some of these men are in for a big surprise. The
husband will find himself carrying around his wife’s
Bible for her while she preaches the gospel and wins
souls by the millions.
Hopefully, many of us men in the Church will
begin to realize that our wives are just as much God’s
children as we are. We will start treating them with
the honor God prescribes in His Word.
The Bible teaches that wives are to be submissive
to their husbands, and that husbands are to treat their
wives with honor as if they were weaker vessels, treating
them with tenderness and love. This does not
mean, however, that women are weaker vessels. Men
and women are each superior to the other in certain
ways. God made them that way. Both are made in His
image. “God created man in his own image, in the
image of God created he him; male and female created
he them” (Genesis 1:27).
That means God is both male and female.
Every word in the Hebrew language has either
male or female gender—except one! Jehovah. Jehovah
is the only word that has both male and female gender;
so God is as much female as He is male.
When God made Adam, Adam was both male
and female. God separated the female part from
Adam and deposited it in Eve. Then He brought
them back together to honor one another. Where
a man is weak, the woman is strong. Where the
woman is weak, the man is strong. United, the two
of them should have no weaknesses. They should
honor and reverence one another as heirs together of
the grace of life.
Then together husbands and wives are to submit
to God by honoring Him.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
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