Our Lord’s triumph over the earthly authorities has much to teach us about authority in general. It did not go well for Agrippa when he exalted himself. And the entire hierarchy was levelled when Christ sent the Romans in judgment upon Jerusalem in AD70. In your positions of authority, this should sober you. And in positions under authority, it should do the same. “Put not your trust in man in whom there is no salvation.” And that principle works whether you are at the top of the hierarchy or at the bottom. I want to apply this to marriage, first with a word to wives and then husbands.

Wives, one of the fundamental truths that you must have clear in your mind in heart if you would respect your husband is that he is not Jesus. “Ah, you see, pastor, I already have that one covered.” OK, very good. But I have found more than a few women who have not. Errors abound. People have been known to say, “We have no king but Caesar.” And wives have been known to say, “I have no king but my man.” Abigail would beg to differ and she respected her husband by rightly identifying him as a fool. If you have no standard above your husband and no Godman above your man, then you do not have respect and submission. You have an idol.

Husbands, if you want to be eaten by worms, then signal that your wife should worship you. But there is a better way. That way requires you to know the difference between respect and disagreement. It requires you to trust God and not yourself. It requires you to love your wife, which includes covering a multitude of sins. There is an exacting man, who suffocates those under his leadership and doesn’t know the last thing about genuine patriarchy. He says that he will love his wife if she demonstrates loveliness, having forgotten that it is love that bestows loveliness. And if we might get to the heart of the matter, what shape was Christ’s bride in when He came to die for her? You go and do likewise.