Chadwick - Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Wife

HARVEST HOUSE PUBLISHERS

EUGENE, OREGON

All Scripture quotations are taken from The ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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EIGHT GREAT WAYS TO HONOR YOUR WIFE

Copyright 2016 David Chadwick

Published by Harvest House Publishers

Eugene, Oregon 97402

www.harvesthousepublishers.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chadwick, David, 1949-

Eight great ways to honor your wife / David Chadwick.

pages cm.(Eight great ways)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6725-9 (pbk.)

ISBN 978-0-7369-6726-6 (eBook)

1. HusbandsReligious life. 2. MarriageReligious aspectsChristianity I. Title.

BV4528.3.C38 2016

248.8425dc23

2015030504

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To my mom and dad, Helen and Howard Chadwick, who honored each other and the Lord they loved and served until their last breath. Im glad youre together in heaven. I look forward to seeing you again!

To my beloved wife Marilynn, who has honored me with her life, faith, and love. I hope my life has honored you as well. I honor, value, treasure, and esteem you beyond mere words.

To my three children, Bethany, David, and Michael, who have honored me mostly by choosing to love and serve my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Your lives and choices have honored me well. May your children honor you too.

C ONTENTS

T he word honor has become missing in action in the English vocabulary. Oh yes, sadly, we sometimes hear about an honor killing. Most often, thats when a child rejects a certain faith tradition. The father feels he must kill the child for the sake of honor in his home. There is also honor among thieves. They still seem to hold the word honor in high esteem. The Boy Scouts still begin their pledge with On my honor, I will do my duty. Some schools still emphasize an honor code.

But in reality, the word honor isnt much talked about today.

The importance of the word honor has not been abated in the Bible. Children are to honor their mothers and fathers (Exodus 20:12). Rulers in the government (Romans 13:7) and the elders who preach, teach, and lead the church are to receive a double honor (1 Timothy 5:17). Widows who serve others (1 Timothy 5:3) and friends who labor for us (Philippians 2:29) should also be given honor because of their personal importance in our lives. Christians are to honor one another, even above self (Romans 12:10). When Christians behave with honor, it should draw spiritual skeptics toward faith in God (1 Peter 2:12).

And honor is supposed to be given by a husband to his wife (1 Peter 3:7). He is to honor her as one with enormous value. In this verse, Peter says that a wife is to be treated as a weaker vessel. I dont think this idea expresses inferiority at all. I believe Peter used this phrase to describe a fine, delicate piece of pottery, like porcelain. The wife is supposed to be like a priceless vase in her husbands hand. He is to treat her with great care and gentle esteem, tenderly showing to her the enormous value she holds in his life.

In the New Testament, the Greek word translated honor is timen . It can refer to a prize, esteem, value, recognition, or respect. The opposite of honor is shame. To dishonor something or someone means we are ashamed of it or the person.

To honor something or someone means it or the person is very valuable; indeed, a treasuresomething or someone about which or whom youre not ashamed. When you feel shame, you feel worthless. Shame is the antonym of honor. So when we honor God, we are saying he is infinitely more valuable and prized than anything on earth and therefore worthy of our worship.

What does the Bible mean when it tells us to honor our wives? Let me put it in a way our culture can understand. She is a trophya person dearly prized. She is the husbands ultimate, permanent trophy bride! When you look at your wife, you cant believe she is a part of your life. You consider it a high privilege to be married to her. You want others to know the value she has in your life. You are honored she is your wife.

What would happen in our culture if we stopped looking at our wives as being someone placed on our arms to make us look good? What would happen if we truly understood what biblical honor means and desired to value our wives by recognizing them as prized, permanent trophies?

When we truly show honor as we should, we will treat our wives as a priceless treasurea person of immense value and worth. As King Solomon wrote, A mans greatest treasure is his wife (Proverbs 18:22).

This book is about eight great ways to honor your wife. My wife, Marilynn, has written an accompanying book entitled Eight Great Ways to Honor Your Husband. We both are trying to recapture the significance and importance of this word honor especially in the marriage relationship between a husband and a wife.

We both believe God gives his original design for marriage in the creation narrative (Genesis 12). In Genesis 2:20, Eve ( isha in the Hebrew) is taken from Adams side ( ish in the Hebrew). These two were once one. When separated, the goal is for them to come back together as two equal and complementary partners. Only these two different people can cleave and weave their lives together.

In Genesis 2:24, God gave his order and goal for marriage: one man, one woman, in a committed, complementary, permanent, heterosexual, monogamous relationship. At the end of this verse, God gave his intended desire for these two complementary people coming together: oneness. He wanted the two to become one flesh.

He wants my love for Marilynn and Marilynns love for me to swim through our veins like fish in the sea.

At the end of all marriage days, God wanted a man and a woman to be inextricably one. His design was the strange, mysterious, profound intermixture of two hearts and souls. I am to become one with Marilynn. She is to become one with me. At the end of our married days he wants our fingers tightly squeezed together, expressing the mingling of our lives together. Thats Gods will in marriage. Thats why he created it.

You will see this theme of oneness in marriage interwoven throughout this book. Honoring one another as husband and wife is one of the major ways this goal from God happens.

Lets be very clear: Honor is not the end goal of marriage. But it is very important in marriage. Marilynn and I would not have written these two books if we didnt think so. But its an aid. Its a means to the end. The goal is two becoming one. Learning to honor one another unequivocally helps this occur.