It's Your Responsibility, Husband
Do you remember the line in Spiderman where Peter Parker is sitting in the car with his uncle, and his uncle says, “With great power, comes great responsibility”? We all know that ordinary Peter Parker was given superhuman power with the bite of a radioactive spider. With that power he rescued the innocent and defeated the likes of the Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus.
In real life that does not happen. In real life, though, a great responsibility has been handed down. Eph 5:23 says, “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church.”Ok, men, stop puffing out the chest and thumping on them like you’re Tarzan. Instead, consider the weight of that statement which Paul made. Too many of us husbands do not consider what it means to be the head of the home. All too often we think that we are the benevolent dictator who bestows goodness to his submissive wife and puts her in her place if she does not heed her “Scripturally mandated subservience.” All too many times we tend to focus on that wonderful thought “For the husband is the head of the wife . . .” and we leave behind “as Christ also is the head of the church.”
Men, do you (and I) truly realize the weight of that statement and the verses that follow? It means, husbands, that we are to model the example of Jesus Christ in the leadership of our home. Do you know what that example is? No, it’s not bringing out the whip and chasing the moneychangers out of the Temple. It’s not sparing verbally with the religious hypocrites of the day. It’s not even telling our wives how to live through the use of parables. No, gentlemen, it is much deeper and much more difficult than that. Husbands, it is our responsibility to model the example of Jesus Christ when He picked up the basin and towel. Read the account starting in John 13:5. The example shown there is the example that Jesus Christ modeled throughout His ministry on earth – servant leadership.
Men, we are called by God to lead our homes. It is a tremendous responsibility. I believe that, in order for us to lead as God desires, we have to set aside ourselves and put someone else in the first place – our wives. It is, admittedly, something that is very difficult. We are all by nature selfish. We all desire to have our wants and needs fulfilled. For us as husbands, it comes to the choice that we make. Do we lead selfishly, tyrannically (however benevolently we think), or despotic? Do we lay aside the self interests to pick up the towel and basin and minister to our wives?
Men, there is no way that we can handle this great responsibility of being a husband on our own. When we do, we screw up – royally! That’s all right, men. We are just ordinary men called to do an extraordinary task. This very fact is why it is so crucial for us as husbands to continually fall on our knees and faces before God and pray for His strength, His guidance, His ability in our lives and in the exercise of the responsibility He has called us to engage. The reason God chooses to use ordinary men for this extraordinary task is because when ordinary men understand their limits they call on the Extraordinary God to strengthen their weakness.
Husbands, we are fools if we think that being the head of the home means that we get to tell our wives what to do, how to do it, and how quickly it needs to be done. We are blooming idiots if we think that it is the wife’s responsibility to respond to our selfish wills. We are major morons if we think that leadership in the home is easy. And we are just plain buffoons if we think that we can handle this responsibility without God.
Husbands, it is one thing to drive around lost and refuse to ask directions (even though we have passed the same gas station four times). It is another thing to strut around our homes as leaders without God. This great responsibility of servant leadership requires that we (that’s you and I, husbands) humble ourselves to the role of servant and minister to (without expectation of returned favor) those wonderful women God has privileged us to marry. There is no greater blessing that you can bestow on your wife than for you to take seriously the role God has given you and lead with a servant’s heart.
If you are a husband who runs roughshod over your wife, you are an idiot! If you are a husband who lets his wife run roughshod over you, you too are an idiot! If you are a husband who understands the responsibility God has placed on you to lead with the heart of a loving servant, then you have begun to understand God’s design for your role in your family. You are to be commended.
Men, this responsibility is too great for us to handle. Develop a daily walk with God to draw you close to Him. He is the one who is our Example. He never gives us a task too great. Lean on Him. Trust Him. We are ordinary men who have an extraordinary God.
mrc
