Our Marriages: Beautiful and Considerate

[0:00] We hope that you enjoy this teaching from Christ Church. This material is copyrighted and no unauthorized duplication, redistribution, or any other use of any part is permitted without prior consent from Christ Church.

[0:15] Please consider donating to this work in the San Francisco Bay Area online at ChristChurchEastBay.org. Today's scripture reading is from 1 Peter 2, verses 11-12 and 21, and chapter 3, verses 1-8.

[0:38] A reading from the first letter of Peter. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

[0:50] Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

[1:04] For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps. 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.

[1:26] Do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair, 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.

[1:42] 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. And you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

[2:00] 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.

[2:13] Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

[2:28] Thank you, Denise, for that scripture reading. You know, normally with a tough and touchy passage like ours today, I like to start off with some humor and give our lead pastor, Jonathan, a hard time for sticking me with yet another difficult text.

[2:45] But he's not here. He's on vacation. And honestly, this text weighed on me pretty heavily this week. First of all, I'm not coming at this as the perfect husband with the perfect marriage.

[2:58] I feel very unsuited to preach today's text. That's mostly addressed to wives, right? Six verses to wives and then one to the husband. And then secondly, I'm also aware that domestic abuse is real, right?

[3:14] And that it harms women much more than it harms men. And I just think about all the ways that this text and others like it in the Bible and this thing we call God's Word have been used by Christians to ignore and silence and oppress women, particularly isolated, desperate, hurting wives.

[3:34] And so honestly, I tremble under the responsibility of preaching this text that's so often been misunderstood and misapplied and used to support male supremacy and to harm and hurt rather than to help and to heal.

[3:51] I think of one woman in particular that I met very briefly about 15 years ago at this church, this church that I really admired when I visited it. But just last year, I learned in a Christianity Today article that this same woman had been physically abused, sent to the hospital by her husband.

[4:11] And in that article, I also learned that one of her pastors had counseled her, based on passages like this one today, he counseled her to return home without calling the police.

[4:25] And her takeaway from their very first counseling meeting, this meeting with the pastor of counseling at this church, was that submission to her husband was of a higher priority than her physical safety and that her job was just to not rile him up.

[4:39] On another occasion, she had called 911 because she and her husband had gotten into a fight in the car. And when the cops themselves told her not to return home with her spouse, another pastor from the same church told her to submit to her husband as to the Lord and not to provoke him.

[4:57] The article continued and revealed that there were many other women in this church who had received similar counsel. And while I'm not the kind of pastor that's hoping to counsel you in this way, I also recognized that, you know, these things could come from pastors.

[5:14] I'm susceptible to error. And, you know, this was just one church. But it's a church, and it's a church I know that has done a lot of good things, even alongside of these terrible things. So I really tremble preaching this text because I know the dangerous ways it can be interpreted and applied, and I know that I'm just as susceptible to these errors as any other pastor.

[5:33] And even if I preach this, like, perfectly, right, thread the needle, I also just fear the ways that, you know, people still might take it, even apart from my intentions. So I want to pray right now and ask for the Holy Spirit's guidance upon my speech, upon your ears and your hearts, that we would take God's Word seriously and apply it rightly.

[5:55] All right, so will you pray with me? Father, we always need your help when we listen to your Word, when we interpret your Word, and when we apply it.

[6:08] Lord, would we understand your Word and apply it in a way that lifts up people made in the image of God, in a way that lifts up the glory and the beauty of Jesus Christ, and in a way that dignifies all those around us.

[6:24] Would we apply it that way, in love, guided by your Spirit, in the way of Jesus. Amen. All right, so, you know, while a big part of me wishes that I didn't have to preach this text or that I could, you know, pick which parts of the Scripture I agreed with, the better part of me, I think, the Holy Spirit-led part of me, believes that our discomfort, our contemporary culture's discomfort with texts like these, well, that is precisely the reason, I think, why these texts need to be preached rather than ignored.

[6:59] I'm increasingly convinced that it's precisely these challenging texts from God's Word that actually demand more attention and not less. Because, you know, when we don't give proper attention to these challenging passages, I think we miss the incredibly unique and really astounding heart of God and the masterful intentions that He has for this world.

[7:19] Like, when we don't give proper attention to these hard texts, what I think happens is that simplistic readings and interpretations, they actually get to take center stage when we don't pay close attention to what God says in His Word.

[7:33] Okay, so I want to pay close attention to this text. Even as it says in verse 1, wives, be subject to your own husbands. All right? And you know what's fascinating to me, though, is that people who are theologically liberal and then people who are theologically, you know, fundamentalist, they actually both interpret this in the same way, simplistically.

[7:53] Those on the right say, hey, this supports patriarchy and male dominance, so let's preach God's Word. Let's wield the Bible in our culture war to bring society back to our patriarchal values just as God intends.

[8:05] And then those on the left also say, hey, this supports patriarchy and male dominance. They say the same thing, right? But then they say, so let's not preach this. Let's not consider this as God's Word. Let's downplay and critique the authority of the Scriptures to bring our society to what we know is truly good for the world.

[8:23] So you see, while they might have different approaches and responses to this text, their interpretation, their understanding of what Peter means is actually the same. But see, what I want to say, what I want to show you is that both of these sides aren't paying close enough attention to this text.

[8:38] They're both reading it simplistically. And I think that they're missing the heart of God and His vision for the world and all of its splendid unity and diversity. I'm convinced that if we are willing to seek God's heart with humility about our fallibility and our finitude, and yet also with confidence that He is able to communicate His truths to us clearly, even with our flaws and limitations, if we prayerfully meditate on these hard passages in the Bible with open hands and a heart ready to repent and believe all that He says, what we will find is that God and His Word are far richer, far more nuanced, and far more liberating and dignifying than we initially realized.

[9:16] And that shouldn't surprise us as Christians, right, that God's Word is true, infinitely wiser than each of us, pregnant with meaning, always relevant, and always full of good news, even and maybe even especially when it says things that are hard to accept.

[9:31] So I want to challenge us to not lean on our own modern Western secular Bay Area understandings, which will predispose us to viewing the Bible as a dated, misogynistic text written by mere men who are unenlightened and just ancient.

[9:46] And I want to invite us to approach these words of Scripture as God's very truth, full of greater beauty, greater wisdom than we ever expected. Now let me remind you of the context of this letter surrounding what Peter just said about wives and husbands.

[10:00] Remember, he's writing to exiles in modern-day Turkey, casting a vision for them as both beloved by God and at the same time sojourners and exiles. As it says here in verse 11, look, Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.

[10:17] Then he says, Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.

[10:29] He's pastoring them. He's pastoring them as religious minorities to be faithful and distinctive beacons of light to those around them, not for the sake of their mere survival, but for the ultimate purpose of what?

[10:41] Of representing Christ and drawing people to Him. His main concern is that Christians choose the high road, not to come to retaliation or winning in culture at any cost, but that they walk in the way of Jesus.

[10:53] So we saw Him in the last couple weeks, we saw Him tell them to submit to their pagan governing authorities. We saw Him tell the servants even to submit to their harsh employers, because they first submit to Jesus as Lord first.

[11:09] And He acknowledges that this may lead to suffering, but He also encourages them that this is the very example of Jesus. This is the way of the Lamb who, though innocent, did not retaliate or return evil for evil, but who endured suffering and trusted God, and then was ultimately vindicated in the end.

[11:28] Peter even calls this their calling in verse 21. For to this you have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in His steps.

[11:40] So here in chapter 3, He's addressing wives in the same way. That's why He says in chapter 3, verse 1, likewise, just as He counseled them as religious minorities and as servants with harsh masters to submit, He also now counsels Christian wives to be subject to their husbands, even their husbands who are not Christians.

[11:57] Verse 1, 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.

[12:12] Now let me just start off by saying what this doesn't mean, okay? It doesn't mean that husbands can do whatever they want, like abuse their wives and exert oppressive dominance upon them.

[12:23] This imperative for women to be subject to their husbands is not a license for husbands to subject their wives to their own selfish and sinful desires and wills. Remember, Peter says in chapter 2, be subject, yes, to these human institutions, to your harsh masters, and here to your husbands, but he also said in chapter 2, remember verse 13, he said, be subject, what?

[12:44] For the Lord's sake. The Lord is the Lord. The husband is not the wife's ultimate Lord. Jesus is. So domestic abuse should never be tolerated or even endured by those under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

[12:58] In the case of domestic abuse, you're not called to endure it as a martyr. Call the cops. Tell your pastors. I want to make that super clear. Be subject to your husbands does not mean subject yourself to his abuse and do nothing about it.

[13:12] Peter speaks against this, actually, in verse 7 when he gives the husbands an incredibly progressive command at the time, one that would have been unprecedented in the ancient world. He says, likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as an equal.

[13:29] Later he says, as an heir of the grace of life, just like you. And similarly, the Apostle Paul, in Ephesians chapter 5, when he encourages wives to do the same, to submit to their husbands, he then turns and calls husbands to love their wives like Christ loved the church, giving himself up for her.

[13:46] So really, it's an even greater sacrifice and cost, right? So, you know, I sometimes ask Chelsea for a favor in our household, and she says no. And I jokingly say, well, aren't you supposed to submit to me?

[14:00] Don't try that. Or at least don't be serious if you say that at home, all right? She knows I'm joking. That's the kind of relationship we have. But when I say that, aren't you supposed to submit to me, Chels? I need a foot massage or something like that.

[14:11] She'll be like, no, you give me a massage, because aren't you supposed to lay your life down for me? All right? And she is very right, right? And biblically astute to respond to me in that way.

[14:23] I'm supposed to lay down my life for my wife. So again, this text doesn't mean wives may be subjected to abuse from their husbands or that husbands always get their way.

[14:34] That's not what this means. And it also doesn't mean that wives are somehow inherently inferior or of less value than their husbands. No, when Peter addresses Christians in chapter 2, what does he call the whole church?

[14:45] He calls them a holy nation, a royal priesthood, beloved, special, chosen by God. He doesn't just mean the men. He doesn't see a hierarchy within this holy nation between husbands and wives.

[14:57] Now, just as his fellow apostle Paul writes to the Galatians, there is neither male nor female, but they are all one in Christ. They're all one in Christ. I love how Kathy Keller writes, both women and men get to play the Jesus role in marriage.

[15:13] Jesus in his sacrificial authority, Jesus in his sacrificial submission. There is no inferiority here. In verse 7 again, Peter even reminds husbands that their wives are heirs of the grace of life, just like they are.

[15:27] And even when he refers to these wives, I know you caught that, as the weaker vessel. He's not making a comment on the worth and dignity or the utility of women, but most commentators believe he's simply making a generalized statement about the comparative difference in physical strength between men and women and how that does lead to lower levels of social agency and empowerment for women.

[15:53] But this is far from saying women are of lesser value and status in the eyes of God. In fact, it's an uplifting word for women and how they ought to be treated even when they are viewed as weak in society.

[16:04] The commentator Karen Jobes writes, how ironic it is that the words that first century wives would have read as affirming and empowering are criticized by some today as enslaving and oppressive.

[16:18] Because see, all throughout the ancient world, secular historians will tell you that wherever the Christian gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ was preached, it was always perceived to be radical news, radical news with unique implications for human equality.

[16:33] People are like, what? Our slaves are our brothers in Christ? What? Our wives are co-heirs with us in our eternal inheritance with Christ? What? Our ethnic enemies are citizens with us in the kingdom of Christ?

[16:47] So what Peter is saying in verse one is not giving a license for husbands to be dominant. It's also not a statement about the value of women. In fact, that Peter addressed wives and even here wives who were married to men who were not Christians, that Peter saw them and that he thought of them in their difficult situations and that Peter also saw them as having agency and influence in the household and as part of God's perfect purposes to win the world to Jesus, that Peter in verse seven even commands husbands to treat their wives well and with understanding and honor and equality or else God will not attend to their prayers.

[17:21] All of this was very unusual in the Greco-Roman world. And really quite progressive and revolutionary in the early church because of the way of Jesus and the way of the apostles and their teachings, women were dignified in the early church in unprecedented ways.

[17:40] I just want to say that, okay? But even while supporting the equality of wives and husbands, Peter doesn't promote though a flat and simplistic equality that's without any distinction.

[17:51] Make no mistake, Peter teaches that husbands and wives are equals and precious to God while also having distinct yet equally valuable roles and callings.

[18:03] I love how this one African Christian writer, Tiffany Mutoni Kiri writes about the differences between wives and husbands. She writes, although we were both created by God in his image, we have different abilities, physical strengths and roles.

[18:16] Our differences are God's beautiful design. They aren't a disadvantage in the body of Christ. In fact, Elizabeth Elliot says, our inequalities are essential to the image of God. Difference doesn't indicate a discrepancy in worth or value.

[18:30] Rather, it is God's design for his church, marriage, and society at large. See, there is a specific role that Peter invites the Christian wives he writes to to play in order to fulfill God's purposes.

[18:42] There is a specific kind of witness, a specific kind of picture he has in mind for Christian wives to beautifully and uniquely display to the world. And this is the picture. This is the picture.

[18:52] It's a picture of prophetic, priestly queens. Women united with the Lord Jesus Christ, fully equal with their husbands. It's a picture of these beloved daughters of the king not asserting their worth and value and equality through forceful revolution against their husbands and against society.

[19:13] It's a picture of queens who are so secure, so convinced of their worth in the eyes of God that winning their husbands into deeper relationships with Christ is even more important to them than achieving some quantitative, objective, empirical kind of fairness in their marriage.

[19:33] Just like we saw in Peter's advice to political and religious minorities and even to slaves in chapter 2, the strategy of God's kingdom in this world to win this world, it isn't through asserting ourselves with hard power, the hard power of authoritarian demands and threats and power grabbing.

[19:51] No, the way of Jesus is to win the world through the soft power of respectfulness and purity and holiness. Verse 1, Be subject to your husbands so that they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives.

[20:05] When they see you're respectful and pure conduct. We're to win the world with our conduct. So do you see what Peter is doing here? He's not just giving practical advice, but he's reframing our whole outlook on the often challenging relationships between husbands and wives.

[20:21] See, ever since Adam and Eve turned away from God and mixed up their roles and blamed each other and traded their harmonious complementarian relationship with each other for a power struggle, husbands and wives have been caught up now in this battle of the sexes.

[20:38] But what Peter is doing here is he's saying to these Christian wives that the goal isn't to win against your husband. No, the goal is to win your husband, not win against him.

[20:50] The primary goal isn't simply fairness and equity between spouses. The goal is winning our spouses into deeper relationships with Christ, which, by the way, will result in more fairness in marriage and not less, but actually something even better than fairness.

[21:05] The way of Jesus doesn't just lead to fair marital relationships, it leads to gracious and generous marital relationships, right? Relationships where husbands and wives aren't even keeping score about who has given up more for whom, who's washed more dishes, taken out the trash more, changed more diapers, who's sacrificed their career more, or who is more valuable to the family, who earns more, and thus deserves more leisure.

[21:33] Ask my wife Chelsea, if we were pursuing equity and objective fairness in our marriage, man, I'd be in a huge debt to her. And she would have every reason to resent me, actually.

[21:44] But because of the gospel, because Chelsea has a Savior who has loved and served her above and beyond, Chelsea delights to serve me, her husband, and our whole family, even when she ends up giving more than she receives oftentimes.

[21:59] Because to her, it's an honor to be like Christ. And then for me, because of the gospel, I don't take her labors for granted. I thank her, and I marvel at her diligence and her generosity, and I see Jesus in her.

[22:13] And I want to respond by serving her as well, but not because I owe her. I do have a lot of work to do to be a better husband, to serve her better, but again, not because I owe her, or to rebalance the scale to ensure equity, but just because I love her.

[22:28] There is no scale. There is no scale. This is what God wants for our marriages. Relationships where husbands and wives just love and sacrifice for one another in mutual submission as equals, yet with different gifts and callings and roles to contribute to each other and to their family and to the world.

[22:47] And this dynamic of wives submitting to their husbands and husbands sacrificially honoring their wives and living with them in an understandable way, it's going to look different in every household. The New Testament is interestingly silent about what exactly this looks like concretely across cultures and with all the unique personalities and giftings and callings and situations that exist in all kinds of marriages between husbands and wives, but the main point, it isn't about subjugation.

[23:14] It isn't about instituting some kind of hierarchy within the marriage. It's about service unto the Lord and service unto one another for the good of others and the glory of Christ.

[23:26] When Peter is suggesting here, what he's suggesting is that there is a better way to live than fighting within the husband-wife power struggle. As those united with Christ, wives can know and trust that they are already equal just because God says so.

[23:44] And therefore, they are free from the power struggle, free from the burden of having to win or gain their equality or claw it back from their husbands. And I'm not saying women shouldn't advocate for women's rights and equal treatment in society, but what I am saying is that wives, you do not have to be your own saviors.

[24:03] You don't have to devote your life to winning the battle of the sexes in this fallen world. You don't have to seek to win by any means necessary. Peter says there's a better way to live, not for the ultimate goal of winning the battle of the sexes against your husband, but simply living to win your husband to Jesus and for Jesus.

[24:24] And do you know what this does when we reframe the power struggle and think in terms of winning our spouses to Jesus and His agenda rather than winning against our spouses for our own selfish agendas?

[24:35] Do you know what happens when we do this? If our aim as spouses is to lead them into deeper relationships and intimacy with Christ, then the very way we seek to influence our spouses and our whole society is radically changed.

[24:47] I think this is what Peter has in mind and why he goes on in verse 3 to speak about how wives should adorn themselves. You see, in the ancient world and really still today, how is it that women have often sought to influence men and win them over and gain power and prestige in male-dominated societies?

[25:04] Well, typically men utilize their bodily strength, right? But a unique way that women have often gained influence in this kind of world is through their bodily beauty, right? But if you think about it, while it might gain women some influence, it's still playing the man's game, right?

[25:20] Still giving him reason to objectify women and see them as less than equal and not the image of God. So Peter is saying here that that is not how Christian wives are to win their husbands and influence society, not by their outward perishable beauty, but by their inner unfading beauty.

[25:38] See here in verse 3, Peter isn't, he's not mansplaining, he's not imposing some legalistic, arbitrary dress code when he says, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of the hair, the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear.

[25:50] Peter's not saying, don't braid your hair, don't wear gold jewelry. He's saying, let your adorning be, let the thing that is most beautiful and compelling about you be something that's imperishable, something that lasts, something that's truly admirable, a beautiful heart, a gentle, quiet, peaceful, and tranquil spirit.

[26:08] Verse 4, 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. Peter invites his readers, both husbands and wives to see with God's eyes, align our values with his, to view as precious what he views as precious, not the perishable externals, but the beauty of someone's heart and character.

[26:32] He wants us to see the powerful beauty of a wife, again, so secure and so convinced of her worth in Christ that she can willfully submit to her husband, not because she's inferior, but because she is equal to her husband and because she wants to be humble like her Lord.

[26:48] Not because she's dependent upon her husband, but ultimately because she submits to her husband ultimately as a way of hoping and trusting in God. For, as Peter says in verse 5, this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands.

[27:08] When Christian wives submit to their flawed husbands, they are not hoping in their husbands, but they are demonstrating their hope in God, trusting His plan and His purposes, seeking beauty in His eyes.

[27:21] This is what Sarah did with Abraham. Verse 6, Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him Lord. And you are her children if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. Think about Sarah's example for a second.

[27:33] When Abraham heard from God to leave his homeland and his country and everything he knew to move from place to place to who knows where, it wasn't just by Abraham's faith that they moved and pressed on as sojourners and eventually blessed the whole world.

[27:46] It was also by Sarah's faith, which she expressed by submitting to her husband Abraham. So really, just as Christians are called sons of Abraham if they share his faith, so also can wives be called daughters of Sarah if they share her submission to their husbands, not with faith in their husbands, but trusting God without fear and continuing to pursue what is good and what is beautiful in God's eyes.

[28:12] These are the kinds of wives that Peter imagines will not only win their husbands, but these are the kinds of Christians that will win the world. Not by political or forceful revolution like we saw someone tried to do yesterday, nor by tipping the scales toward one party or another or even tipping the scales to try to get toward equity by any means necessary.

[28:34] No, but through Christians who are so secure in Christ that they will gladly submit to God and to others. Christians committed to living righteous, holy, pure, respectful, gentle, quiet lives of deference.

[28:48] Christians seeking something better than equity. Christians seeking lives of sacrificial love and generosity and benevolent grace extended toward the people around them in the name of Jesus and in the way of Jesus.

[29:01] You see, Peter here, he isn't calling the Christian wives in Asia Minor to be more ladylike. That's not what this passage is about. He's not calling the wives to be more ladylike. He's simply calling them to be Christlike.

[29:14] That's what he's calling them to. So if we have a problem with what Peter is commending to these wives in being subject to their husbands, what if the problem isn't that Peter's being chauvinistic?

[29:25] What if the problem is that our imaginations are too limited to see the dignity and the beauty of Christlike submission? What if the problem is that what we view as precious and beautiful and admirable is quite different than what God views as precious and beautiful and admirable?

[29:42] What if the problem is that we've made an idol out of headship and leadership? What if we are the ones who wrongly think of submission as necessarily entailing inferiority?

[29:54] See, if we have problems with the kind of submission that God calls wives to here, if we think that the Scriptures are calling wives to some sort of inferior status that diminishes their value, and if we cannot see this invitation submission as something beautiful and admirable, then what does that say about how we view Jesus?

[30:13] If we cannot see the beauty and the strength and the unique, subversive, countercultural power of submission and holiness and respect and purity and gentleness and quiet tranquility, then we're missing the majesty of the gospel.

[30:29] We're missing the goodness of the good news of Jesus. He was the high king of heaven, yet he humbled himself as a man, submitting to his father in heaven, subjecting himself to birth in a manger, life as a refugee, homelessness, hunger, rejection, wicked, oppressive, governing authorities, and ultimately an unjustified murder.

[30:51] And yet, is it not the very humility and submission and self-giving nature of Jesus, the Son of God, that we find most beautiful about him? Is it not these qualities that most lift our hearts up to worship and adore him as our humble savior king?

[31:09] The one who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

[31:25] Therefore, Paul says, therefore, because he humbled himself, therefore, God has what? highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name. This is the way and pattern of Jesus that Peter is inviting us into.

[31:38] And this is a word to all of us, not just to husbands and wives. Following in the footsteps of Jesus is to live a life of divestment, is to divest ourselves of our privileges and our power and our influence and time and money for the good of others, particularly those in our households, such as our spouses.

[31:57] And for wives, this means submitting to their husbands even while equals. However, you may work that out in your household. It means not undermining your husbands, but supporting them and following them as they follow Christ.

[32:09] And for husbands, it means honoring our wives, seeking to understand them deeply and thoughtfully and compassionately, even when they might seem weak or frail to us in certain ways.

[32:20] We're not to take advantage of them or dominate them, but value them as co-heirs with Christ. And for all the rest of us who aren't husbands or wives, we can walk in these ways too, humbly submitting to one another out of faith and trust in God's plans, not needing to always get our way because we know God will have His way in the end.

[32:41] And because of this, we can focus on earnestly just seeking to lead those around us into deeper relationships with Christ, making that our number one mission. Freely walking in Jesus' footsteps, honoring the so-called weak amongst us, treating them as equals and as precious in the eyes of God, sacrificing for them, slowing down for them, giving them our hearts and our time and our attention, laying our lives down for the weak and really for all others because that is exactly what our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, has done for us and oh so much more, right?

[33:17] That is how people who believe the gospel live. That is how people who believe the gospel is the best news live in their households and in the world. Let's pray.

[33:32] Lord, we confess the ways that we often don't find Jesus and His ways beautiful. Lord, we ask for a clearer vision to see the beauty of Christ who laid down His life in submission and we ask that You would fill us with Your Spirit to be those kinds of people for the good of those around us, for the glory of Your name as a testimony to the glorious, unique beauty of Jesus Christ, the crucified King.

[34:06] Would He be lifted up in the way we live, we pray in His name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.