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Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
If you have a Bible, I invite you to open to first Peter chapter three. I'm gonna be a little restricted this morning wearing the sling, but I I had my my tenth and hopefully final shoulder surgery. I hope it is, Lord willing. They took some old parts out, put new parts in. I'm still on a lot of meds though, guys.
Joel Brooks:Preaching in the spirit. Yeah. Doctor said, I'm still I'm not allowed to drive. I asked about preaching. He goes, oh, you're fine preaching.
Joel Brooks:Can't get behind the wheel, but you could get behind a pulpit. But he said, as long as they're not preaching, like, on anything really hard. I said, well, it's about wives submitting to their husbands. He's like, oh, you're fine. You all hold on.
Joel Brooks:Lauren and I, we just celebrated our thirtieth wedding anniversary. And, we met, actually, in the halls of Milton High School, which was just north of Atlanta. And, I remember when I saw Lauren for the first time, and in all of her glory, she had an aura around her. I was actually sitting on the floor of Milton High School, and she walked by, and she was she was wearing a pink Guess' skirt. And, I remember I saw her, and I said, Lord, I pray her heart matches her legs.
Joel Brooks:And I went after her. I was 16 years old. It's also the med speaking people. Alright? And her heart did.
Joel Brooks:And I I knew pretty early on, even as a 16 year old boy, I knew that this this was the girl for me, this was the girl I wanted to spend the rest of my life with trying to change in every possible way. Because that's what we do, isn't it, like in marriage? Two loving, committed people, and they get together, love everything about them, and then they spend the rest of their lives trying to change everything about the other person, trying to change the way they cook their eggs, the music they listen to, the way they load the dishwasher, the types of music they like, the way they want to parent, how they should vacation, what type of exercise they should be doing. We we're constantly doing this. In the passage that we're about to read, Peter, he's going to talk about how a husband and wife should actually want to change one another and the power that God has uniquely given each of them in order to bring about the change that he wants.
Joel Brooks:For those of you who are single here, this is going be a text on marriage, but there's many things you could glean about this and maybe someday, you will be married. First Peter three, first seven verses. Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives. When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord.
Joel Brooks:And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life so that your prayers may not be hindered. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Pray with me.
Joel Brooks:Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit in this moment would provide clarity to this text. You write it on our hearts in order that every person in this room might look more like you, Jesus. So I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and not be remembered anymore, but Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. And we pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:Over the last six or seven years, Lauren and I, we've had the privilege of leading different marriage retreats. During one of our sessions, I I get all the married couples to play a game. Some of you have actually played this. You've been at a retreat. And it's I give every couple a wooden puzzle.
Joel Brooks:It's just a it just forms a square. They put it back together the way it's supposed to go, and and I tell all them to put it together. And a couple of things you notice right off the bat. First, every couple assumes it's a competition. They fiercely go after it, they're looking at all the others because they've got to get first to prove to everyone else that their marriage is the best.
Joel Brooks:But then, you start to see the the frustration starting to happen as as they're trying to work together, and maybe the husband is thinking this goes here, then all of sudden, the wife pushes that down and goes, no, it's there. And none of them can visualize what's in the other person's head, and then the frustration sometimes actually boils over into genuine anger at a marriage retreat doing a puzzle. Here's the thing. The puzzle actually isn't hard to put together. It's an easy puzzle.
Joel Brooks:And, the easiest way to do it though is to do it alone. Once you actually just if if you were to not work with your spouse, just try to put together the puzzle by yourself, it's really easy. The hard part is when two people are trying to put it together. And that was the point. It's hard for two people to put their lives, the puzzle pieces of their life, to form them together into which they actually do look like something beautiful.
Joel Brooks:Many people can't finish that puzzle. They get frustrated, and I tell them, hey, the the point actually wasn't for you to finish, the point was for you to enjoy your spouse while playing a game. Well, the text that we're looking at here is about how husbands and wives are supposed to fit together. How do they relate to one another? Really, what Peter is going to unpack here is he talks about the power that both men and women have within marriage and how it should be used and also how it can so easily be abused.
Joel Brooks:Men naturally have the power of physical strength, of aggression. It can either be used to intimidate others, to dominate others in order to get what they want, or can be used that strength to serve, to provide safety, to lift up and to honor their wives. Wives naturally have the power of physical beauty and their sexuality. It's a power that they have over their husbands to to get their husbands to to do whatever they want, or they can lean into a different beauty they have, the imperishable imperishable beauty of the gentle and quiet spirit in order to use that power to serve their husbands. Now, Peter, he talks to both the husbands and the wives about how they're supposed to use their power, but he starts first with the wife.
Joel Brooks:And we do need to proceed with a little bit of caution here because what Peter is not doing is giving us a seminar on marriage, although there's a whole lot we could glean about marriage here. What he is doing is he is addressing a very particular problem within the early church. It's becoming commonplace. What was happening was many women were coming to faith in Christ, but their husbands were not. So, what is a wife supposed to do in that situation?
Joel Brooks:Is that is that even a marriage puzzle that can be put together? If so, how? And and and how in that relationship can this wife show her husband the grace and the beauty of Jesus in order to possible win him over to Christ. That's the goal in all of this. How can you win the other person over to Christ?
Joel Brooks:If you notice, Peter, he actually begins this section with the word likewise, meaning that he's continuing the same train of thought that Matt preached on last week in chapter two, where Peter, he's talking about the gospel witness that we can have in the midst of certain difficult relationships, like our relationship with the government or our relationship with an unjust workplace. And here, he's talking about the most intimate relationship we can have, the relationship within marriage. But hear me, the goal in all of these relationships is the exact same, and the goal is not comfort. The goal is not to take what's the easiest path. The goal is how, in the midst of these difficult relationships, can we reflect the beauty of Jesus in the hopes of winning the unbeliever.
Joel Brooks:And if you don't understand that goal, you won't understand the passage. How can we, who are citizens of heaven, also show people that we're good citizens of earth? How can we demonstrate for those of us who are free in Christ what service looks like in an oppressive workplace? How can we show people the beauty of being the bride of Jesus when we're currently married to someone who has rejected him? Peter writes six whole verses to the wives.
Joel Brooks:Only one verse does he write to the husbands. This is not because the wives need more instruction, but because her situation was more common, also precarious. It was more common because remember, the gospel when it first went forth, it was it went first to the the poor and to the powerless. Those were the ones who were so drawn to the gospel, and a wife in the first century certainly held way less power than her husband. And, as a result, the gospel was so attractive, they were receptive to it, the kingdom of God came to those who were poor in spirit.
Joel Brooks:And, so, they came to know Jesus. That led to potential marital conflict when their husbands did not. I mean, in this day, if a husband changed his religion, well, the wife would just have to follow, at least outwardly. It's what you did. So, if the husband said, hey, kids, get up, get dressed.
Joel Brooks:Wife, come on. We're going to the Temple Of Zeus and we're going to worship. No choice had to. But it didn't work the other way around. No.
Joel Brooks:In that case, if a wife, if she came to faith, well, at best, the husband would tolerate her behavior. At worst, well, he wouldn't just be embarrassed. He could see it as an act of insubordination or maybe even treason. And this meant that he could even divorce her. And when he divorced her, he got all the property, he got all the inheritance, he got all the kids because he held all the cards.
Joel Brooks:So the question is, how should a believing wife behave in a situation like that? I mean, well, as a follower of Jesus, we know that there would have been certain non negotiables for this woman, which meant that she would have had to exercise some form of civil disobedience within her marriage. For instance, she obviously could not renounce Jesus. She couldn't do that. She could not deny the lordship of Jesus, even though her husband probably thought it was treason.
Joel Brooks:What what are doing? You can't say Jesus is Lord, Caesar's Lord. Well, she couldn't back away from that, and she couldn't withdraw from the fellowship of the church. That's a non negotiable. But outside of those things, what else was she supposed to do or not do?
Joel Brooks:For instance, if she's heading out the door to another bible study the husband says, where are you going to another one of those bible studies? I'm sick of you filling your head with all of that with all of that junk. You need to stay home. I'll tell you what you need to learn. What should she do?
Joel Brooks:If she's going out to spend some time with her friends, Christians, her husband stops her and says, hey, hey, why are you always, every single night, it seems like you're doing something with those Christian friends of hers of yours. It's like you like them more than you like me. You need to stay home with me. What should she do? If she wants to give to the church, she is there somebody, another believer who's in need, she wants to give to them, but she knows that will absolutely set her husband off if she does that.
Joel Brooks:What does she do? It's hard. And throughout all of this, what should her attitude be towards him in this situation? I mean, I can see how it be really easy to grow some resentment towards an unbelieving spouse. And these questions that I just posed there, they're not just questions for somebody who's married to an unbeliever.
Joel Brooks:Some of this resonated with you because it could be the same question that a Christian wife has about her relationship with a husband who professes to know Jesus but isn't following him. I mean, he shows nothing but a reluctance to go to church, doesn't read his Bible, never prays, doesn't lead the family in any kind of faith. And you look at it and you're like, oh gosh, honestly, it just feels like a chain around my neck. I just feel stuck. What do you do in that situation?
Joel Brooks:Once again, you gotta remember the goal. Your goal is not to pursue comfort, it's not to pursue the easiest path. Your goal in a situation like that is you want to show the unbelieving person the beauty and glory of Jesus in such a way that you might win them over. Hold that goal in front of you. Well, Peter, he tells the wiser in this situation, says, well, he doesn't say you're supposed to preach at your husbands.
Joel Brooks:He doesn't say you're supposed to get into theological arguments with him. What he tells them is to subject themselves or to submit themselves to their husbands in order to win them over without even having to say a word. Obviously, the husbands are gonna have to hear the gospel at some point, but but what he's saying is like, you don't have to beat him over the head with the bible here. No. You don't have to keep nagging him go to church.
Joel Brooks:You know, no one's ever actually been nagged into the kingdom of God or argued into the kingdom of God, ever. And she doesn't need to do some kind of passive aggressive evangelism. Man, I see that happening all over the place. I'm sure you do too. Know, where the unbelieving husband, he comes home, he wants to sit down in his favorite chair, and, lo and behold, there's a new Tim Keller book on, you know, Reason for God.
Joel Brooks:I don't know how that got there. Or, he's going through the Amazon, you know, he wants his watch list, and The Chosen somehow got on there. I was like, you know, thought we could watch this. Her husband, guess what? You'll never believe this.
Joel Brooks:We just won something extraordinary. He's like, what? Two tickets to this thing called nine lessons and carols. No. It's not what Peter says.
Joel Brooks:He says the goal is that wives should subject themselves to their husbands, subject or to submit to him so that he could be one without a word. Showing grace, which by nature is showing that favor towards someone undeserving of it, is the best way to show somebody Jesus. It's the path that Peter's been calling us to follow all along. It's He said, we take we follow Jesus. He's the one who set the example for this.
Joel Brooks:You know, he submitted to the will of his father even though it meant a really hard road of suffering. Now, these words here, submit to your wife or submit to your husbands, they have been misused at times by husbands in order to try and to force their wives to do for them whatever they want. And, I just have to say that if any of you women here in an abusive relationship and you're being forced to do things against your will and this is being held out over you, that is not at all what Peter means, and he makes this abundantly clear in this passage. And he is not telling you to stay in a relationship like that. You need to leave both for your protection and also to let your husband know that he cannot keep sinning against you in this way.
Joel Brooks:No husband should ever abuse his wife. That's not biblical submission. Yet, at the same time, I want to encourage you not to ignore the word submit. Don't ignore it. For it's not just a word that is used here of Peter to tell wives how to behave in this unhealthy marital relationship.
Joel Brooks:It's the same word that Paul uses in Ephesians five when he's talk talking about the beauty of marriage. And, he says, wives should submit to their husbands. And then, he also says, but all of us are submitting to one another. All of us, husbands, wives, we're all submitting to one another reverence for Christ. What does submission here look like though?
Joel Brooks:Well, verse two, he goes on to say, it looks like being respectful, pure in your conduct. Then, he fleshes this out more by talking about the power of a wife's beauty. Look at verses three and four. It says, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which, in God's sight, is very precious. Wives, do you have any idea how beautiful you are to your husbands?
Joel Brooks:I mean, any idea of that? I mean, if it didn't creep you out, your husbands would just look at you all day, never get tired. I mean, there's times that, you know, Lauren will will catch me, I'm just looking at her, you know, and she'll say things like, you know, you saw me yesterday, the day before, haven't changed. And then she's like, I haven't I haven't even done my hair or anything like that. It doesn't matter.
Joel Brooks:To quote the immortal words of Luke Combs, when I look at my wife with just a t shirt in the kitchen with no makeup and a million other things, that's what I could look at my whole life. I will never ever tire of looking at my wife. There's a power in that that she has over me. There's a power in a woman's physical beauty and her sexuality that both husbands and our whole culture recognize. And, it's easy, understandable for a woman to spend her time focusing on those things, her appearance.
Joel Brooks:That's why, for instance, a guy, like, I could go to Target, all you guys can. You could go to Target and within two minutes, you can have a bathing suit and you could leave. But, for any of you wives out there, you go and you have to try on at least a 100 bathing suits. Why? Because you know you're going to be judged by how you look when you leave.
Joel Brooks:You know that the whole world is going put a grade on your appearance there. It's why when a picture is taken, so many women, have to zoom in, they have to look at every single feature afterwards. Why? Because that's what they feel the world is doing to them, zooming in, looking at every single feature, and that the world is going to give them a grade. And, the higher the grade, the more power you have to get what you want.
Joel Brooks:It's understand I mean, the pressure is immense. It's understandable to just lean into that. And, hear me, Peter's not saying that it's wrong for wives, you know, to to wear makeup, fix up their hairs, wear nice clothes, or or anything like that. Not at all for their husbands. What he is saying though is don't for a moment think that your physical beauty or sexuality will ever have the power to change his heart.
Joel Brooks:It might change some actions, but it will never change his heart. Yes, there's power in those things, but not the power to show people Jesus. For that, you you can't show your outer beauty, you've got to focus on the inner beauty that Jesus himself has put in there, that actually reflects who he is. That's how people see Jesus. I mean, before you met Jesus, you actually had a really ugly heart and and it's something you had to kind of hide from others.
Joel Brooks:Even those who were really trying to to know you and love you, had to hide from them. But since you met Jesus, he has changed your heart. He's given you this beautiful new spirit that's come from the Holy Spirit living in you. You no longer have to hide that, you can actually let it shine before your husband. And, when you shine in that way, when you foster and stir the flame, that beauty, well, that's a real power to change.
Joel Brooks:And, that's a beauty that has not only more power than physical beauty, it's also a beauty that will never sag, it will never wrinkle, and it will never age. It's a beauty that endures forever. Peter says it's that inner beauty that God's put in there, that inner beauty that's gentle, it's obedient, and it's respectful is how he describes it. Now, wives hear me. When he says to be gentle, he's not saying at all that, you know, you're supposed to just keep your head down, never say anything, just always say, yes, yes, yes, not to speak your mind, that's not at all what Peter is describing here.
Joel Brooks:I mean, listen to me, wives. Your husbands need you to speak truth to him. Your husbands need you to correct him when he's in error, to point out his sin. In other words, what was true of Adam in the garden is true of your husband here in Birmingham. It is not good that he should be alone, but he needs a helper that God has made fit for him to enable him to be the person that God has created him to be.
Joel Brooks:He needs your strength in that relationship. Don't shy away from that. When Peter says here that you were to have this gentle spirit, what he means is that you're not trying to force him to do what you want him to do. You're not always trying to tweak him, you're not trying to manipulate him, you're not trying to take the lead in the relationship. Instead, you're going to love him, and to serve him, and respect him.
Joel Brooks:And, he brings up Sarah as an example. It's it's an unusual example here. He he brings up Sarah and says, how Sarah obeyed her husband and called him Lord, which, by the way, Lord three thousand years ago when Abraham lived. It it it's just a title of respect there. But, it's an interesting example, and I was like, I I I scoured just for the longest time, just going all through weeks, actually.
Joel Brooks:Where does Abraham or where does Saras call Abraham Lord? Because I could not think of it. I am just going through everything, and so, I'm reading right through Genesis again, didn't find it. I was so tempted to use AI and just ask, but I did not. Joy is in the journey.
Joel Brooks:I mean, really is. That's how the Lord teaches you those things. Don't take that easy way out, an often wrong answer. Finally, I found it. And I know why I missed it.
Joel Brooks:It's in Genesis 18, and actually, when she called Abraham Lord, it wasn't with a conversation with him or with anybody, it was a thought she had. She said it to herself. It's when the situation was an angel came down and was telling Abraham, hey, by this time next year, your wife Sarah, she's going to have a child. And Sarah is in the next room eavesdropping, and she hears it. And when she hears this, we read that she laughs to herself, and she says, after I am worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have this pleasure?
Joel Brooks:I love that of the myriad of examples that Peter could have pulled out to show what a gentle and respectful wife should look like, he chose this one, one in which a wife was not even in the room with her husband, one in which a wife was doubting that what God's word, what God wanted to accomplish in her husband could actually ever come true. Not even in the room, doubting God's word about what he could do with her husband. And yet, even in that moment, she respected her husband. She thought he was worthy of honor. And Peter says, Wives, be like her.
Joel Brooks:Even in those moments where you think there's no way my husband's ever gonna change. Even when it's just in the quietness of your heart, you you honor, you treat your husband as a person of honor. And if you do, he says, don't fear anything that's frightening. You don't have to fear anything that's frightening because you're not demonstrating a faith in your husband, you're demonstrating your faith in God, and he will not disappoint. Okay.
Joel Brooks:Husbands, let's see what Peter has to say concerning you. Look at verse seven. Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered. Notice once again, Peter is using that word likewise, which means he's continuing the exact same train of thought about how in a relationship, we we submit in a relationship in order to show another person Jesus. That's the theme.
Joel Brooks:He says, husbands, the way that you can do this is by living with your wife in an understanding way. Now, if ever there was an impossible command in scripture, it's this one. Because I have known Lauren for over thirty seven years, and I don't understand her. She is still a total mystery to me, and I know her better than any person on earth. I mean, I've taken the Lauren one zero one class, the two zero one class, I've taken the Lauren advanced classes, but I don't think anyone ever gets a Ph.
Joel Brooks:D. In Lauren. Husbands, you're not going to get the Ph. D. When you're studying your wife, but you should strive for it.
Joel Brooks:You're you're to always be seeking a way to understand her. I mean, Lauren and I, just a couple of weeks ago, we're at a store, and we're looking at different shoes. And I'm trying to, like, track with her. What's she thinking? She's like, ugly, ugly, woof, ugly.
Joel Brooks:That's pretty cute. Ugly. And I promise you, I went and I looked, and there is no difference in any of those things. None. I don't I don't know the algorithms that are in there, and like, I I don't understand, but I want to understand.
Joel Brooks:I want to, and I'm supposed to try to understand, but not just like silly things like shoes. I need to understand how Lauren wants to be praised, how she finds rest, what makes her feel safe, or the opposite, what makes her feel insecure, how does she want to communicate, how does does she want to deal with conflict? I need to understand her because there's no way I can honor her unless I understand her. And that's what Peter says next. I am to honor her as the weaker vessel.
Joel Brooks:Now, let's be clear, guys. When Peter calls her a weaker vessel, he is not talking about her intellect, her willpower, or any other thing other than her physical strength. As a whole, men are stronger and more aggressive than women. It's it's not every case, I mean, you go to the gym where I work out, there's a lot of women way stronger than me, but as a whole, men are stronger than women. Actually, I read this survey recently.
Joel Brooks:It's it was about if a woman is hiking on a trail, this is a survey to women, if you're hiking on a trail, would you be more scared if you ran into a bear alone or if you ran into another man on the trail alone? And I thought, that is the dumbest question, and obviously, one written by somebody who has never actually run into a bear alone on a trail. The the survey results were were surprising is that the women would be more fearful of running into a man if they were alone. Women know. They know that men have a strength over them, and they've seen it abused, and so they fear it.
Joel Brooks:They fear it. Guys, if our whole church right here, all of us, husbands, wives, children, all of us, if we got in a cruise ship and we decided to take I don't know, instead of a VVS, it's it's just a church cruise for a week and of out in the the ocean, we hit something, and we're going down. Do you agree with this statement? Women and children first to the lifeboats. Do you agree with that?
Joel Brooks:I think you do. I think the whole world agrees with that because that has been written on the hearts of men. Yes, it's women I'm to use my strength not to push women down, other people out of the way in order to get what I want for my life. I'm to use my strength to preserve and to protect their life. We know that.
Joel Brooks:God's put that deep within the husband. I am called as a husband to use the strength God has given me, not to dominate my wife or to put her down, but to lift her up and to honor her. And guys, you honor your wives by putting her needs above yours. You know, if Lauren and I were having a disagreement, disagreement. It turns into a strong disagreement, borderline argument.
Joel Brooks:I'm the one who immediately wants to hash it out. It's like, let's just get it let's let's talk about this right now. And, I used to think that this was because, in those situations, I just I don't want anything to be between Lauren and I for even a single minute. It kills me. And that's actually still a large reason.
Joel Brooks:It really is. I I I don't want anything to be between us. But if I were to be honest, there's also another reason. I'm way better at arguing than her. I speak for a living, people.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I've I've got, you know, rhetorical skills. Are you going to really debate with the pastor? I can think quickly on my feet. Lauren, however, she she needs more time. She she needs more time to process things, and she thinks through it more more carefully.
Joel Brooks:She also she she doesn't like to talk about those things when she's tired, and usually, those things happen at the end of the day. She she wants to go to bed and discuss it in the morning. So I understand that about her. I've learned that. So since I know this about her, moving forward, how should I seek to resolve conflict?
Joel Brooks:Well, if I want to win the argument, I hash it out right then and there. I lean into my strengths. But if I want to win my wife, if I want to honor her, well, then I yield to hers. I lay down that strength. I yield to hers.
Joel Brooks:I'm I'm never ever to tell my wife to submit. Husbands who who make a big deal about this, hang that over their their wives, their submit, they're already they're showing themselves that they don't understand what's going on here because those who who feel like they have to keep saying to submit, I guarantee you, they're using it to try to get their wives to do what they want them to do, which is the exact opposite of what Peter is saying here. Husbands, don't focus on whether your wives are submitting, focus on yourself and making yourself so honorable that your wife wants to submit to you. Focus on your heart. Husbands, the reason we honor our wives is because Jesus has honored our wives.
Joel Brooks:He has made our wives co heirs with us. You know how radical that is in the first century? Women, wives, were not co heirs with their husbands. But here, Jesus has made them our equals. We both get the equal share of the inheritance.
Joel Brooks:As a final little warning slash encouragement to the husband, Peter tells them that if they do not seek to honor their wives, God's actually not gonna listen to their prayers. It's gonna hinder their prayers. In other words, you cannot be in a wrong relationship with your wife and expect to be in a right relationship with God. Let me tell you what, I have three daughters. If I ever saw some man coming and disrespecting one of my daughters, using his strength to force her to do something against her will, and he came to me, oh, buddy buddy, that ain't going to happen.
Joel Brooks:It's like, you treat my daughter that way, we've got an issue. And that's what Jesus He's saying. That's that's how God responds. He's got daughters here, and if husbands, you disrespect his daughters, you don't just have a problem with the daughters, you have a you have a problem with the dad. It's going to hinder your relationship.
Joel Brooks:So he says, respect, honor, honor your wives so you can have that that right relationship with God. Really, in all of this, and we'll end here, what Peter's been describing in this whole section about marriage and and honor and and submission, He's just describing love. He's describing a husband and wife who love one another. That's it. And, we were told to love our neighbor as our self, and let me tell you, there's there's no closer neighbor than your spouse.
Joel Brooks:You're to love your spouse. And Paul tells us what that love should look like in first Corinthians 13. Kinda sounds like submission. Let me read this to you, and we'll close. Love is patient and kind.
Joel Brooks:Love does not envy or boast. Love is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way. It is not irritable or resentful. It does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth.
Joel Brooks:Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. This is the love that Jesus through the Holy Spirit has put into our hearts that we are now to show to our spouses. Pray with me. Jesus, I do pray that right now, through your Holy Spirit, you would write these words on our hearts. We want to reflect you, Jesus, to an unbelieving world.
Joel Brooks:And we pray this in your name. Amen.