Monday, October 17, 2022

 

Monday, October 17, 2022


Psalm 106:1-24

Ezra 6:16-7:10

1 Peter 3:1-7


Observance: Ignatius of Antioch, bishop and martyr (d. 115)


With joy they celebrated, for the LORD had made them joyful.


Before we get into the meat and potatoes of today’s reading, did you pay attention to Ezra’s lineage? There are quite a few famous faces in his family tree. One of them is Zadok, the priest who anointed Solomon as king. It is also the name of a famous piece of music by Handel, so here is your permission to go and listen to that after your prayers this morning.


Peter’s lesson for today might rub us the wrong way because he uses the word “authority” in reference to the ideal relationship between a husband and wife. But remember the theme he established in 2:12: the theme of true honour; to whom it is given, and how it is received.


Verse 8 describes women as the “weaker sex”. Before we all throw our Bibles out the window alongside our razors and bras, let’s think about this in the context of real life (as opposed to whimsical idealism). Women are not inherently “weaker” in the sense of salvation: “they too are also heirs of the gracious gift of life”. Rather, Peter has, in previous verses, set up this idea that holy, Godly honour follows the pattern of Christ crucified: Jesus of Nazareth, as God the Son, had the power to escape the cross, yet He displayed greater power in remaining obedient to the Father and going through with it. Peter has then gone on to describe how this power gives honour with the gender-neutral example of slave and master. Now he is being specific: the wife, by accepting the authority of the husband, is willingly placing herself in the weaker position. This feminine act of willing submission is to be copied by the husbands not in return to their wives, but towards Christ. All of us in the church are Christ’s bride, and therefore are to accept the authority of our Husband and God. Husbands, in the same way Christ gives honour to us by accepting His authority, are to honour their wives. This is a high honour, the honour that can only come from God.


Women, as models of the relationship between humanity as a whole and God, receive great honour because of this. Men are to observe this model and reflect it in their own relationship with God. We all want to be a bride worthy of Christ. None of us want the great marriage at the dawn of the new age to be a shotgun wedding with an unwilling Husband. Fortunately, we have the precious blood of Jesus, that tells us that while we were the last person God should want to marry, He nonetheless came and gave Himself so that we would be His forever. This is our joy: that we are wedded to Christ in the most perfect and beautiful marriage, abiding in Him and He in us, and because of this, our joy is made complete (John 15:1-11).



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