Would you turn with me to the
seventh chapter of First Corinthians? I want to remind you that this
Wednesday we will not be having services because of Thanksgiving. First Corinthians, chapter seven,
I've entitled this message Marriage. In 1997, I preached through the
book of First Corinthians. And I remember I did not particularly
look forward to coming to this chapter. I felt unfit to deal
with the subject matter. This is, I believe, the third
longest chapter in the epistles. I think Hebrews 11 and 1 Corinthians
15 is longer, but I remember when I came to this chapter and
you can see how long it is. I preached it all in one message.
And We're going to spend more time
in this chapter. I felt unfit then, I feel unfit
now as far as that goes, but we're going to look at what God's
word teaches. This is where Paul deals with the subject of marriage.
Now, in this chapter, he speaks of marriage. He speaks of marital
responsibilities. He speaks of sex. He speaks of
divorce. He speaks of separation, he speaks
of reconciliation, and he speaks of being single, among other
things. Now, why do I feel a sense of
hesitancy in dealing with this? And I ask myself that question. It's because I really don't feel
like I am much of an authority on this matter, though I don't
need to be. We're looking at what God's word says about this. I certainly don't feel like I'm
a good husband in any way. Some ways I feel like I'm a pretty
good one, to be honest with you. But there's other areas where
I'm sure I've got my weaknesses. And if you would ask Lynn if
I have any weaknesses, she'd probably say no in charity, trying
to cover it all up. Y'all don't talk bad about your
spouse to anybody else. You just shouldn't do it. There's
never a room for that. But she'd cover it up, but if
you could get the honesty out of her, she could tell you a
thing or two about me. I remember she told me once people
have asked her, what's it like to be married to Todd? You know,
like a preacher, you know, what's it like to be? She said, you
don't have any idea. Be that as it may, we're still
going to look at what God's word teaches, and I pray the Lord
will use this to strengthen our marriages. And strengthen us
in a state of being single, single or married or divorced, we all
need to hear what First Corinthians chapter seven has to say. Now,
I'd like to make one other introductory comment, do not approach this
thinking, boy, my spouse needs to hear this. No doubt she or
he does, I got no question about that. But. I hope we will go into this desiring
that I myself, by the grace of God, with the help of God, will
be a better spouse. Not just hoping my wife or husband
hears, but that I myself will hear without thinking about what
somebody else needs to do. That'd be a blessing. If you
could listen to this, and if I could listen to this, what
God's words say, not thinking, boy, I hope my wife or my husband
Here's what's being said, or I hope so-and-so hears what's
being said, but I hope I hear what's being said. Verse 1, 1
Corinthians chapter 7, he says, Now concerning the things whereof
you wrote unto me, it's good for a man not to touch a woman. Now, the church at Corinth had
written Paul and asked him about the subject of marriage, and
he is answering their questions. Evidently, they wrote to him,
would you be better off not being married? You understand? Yes. You'd be better off not being
married. The single state is the state
to be preferred. It's good for a man to not live
in a married state with a woman. It's good for a man not to as
much as touch a woman. If you're single, he says, you're
better off. Look what it says in verses seven
and eight of this chapter. He says, for I would that all
men were even as I myself. Paul wasn't married. But every
man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner and another
after that. I say, therefore, to the unmarried
and widows, it is good for them. If they abide even as I look
in verse 26. I suppose, therefore, that it's
good for the present distress. I say that it's good for a man
so to be to not be married. Are you bound to a wife? Seek
not to be loosed. Are you loose from a wife? Then
don't seek a wife. Stay that way. Look at verse
32. He said, I'd have you without carefulness. He that is unmarried
careth for the things that belong to the Lord. How he may please
the Lord, but he that's married careth for the things that are
of the world, how he may please his wife. So we see the advantage
of an unmarried state. He says, if you're not married,
you're caring for the things of the Lord. And if you're married,
you can't get out of this. You're going to have to keep
that woman happy. You're going to have to keep that man happy.
That's your responsibility, you're supposed to do that if you're
married, but if you're not married, you do not have to deal with
that. Now, let's go back to Genesis chapter two for a moment and
see what God's word has to say about marriage. Now, he says
you're better off not being married. Genesis chapter two, verse 18. And the Lord God said, It is
not good that the man should be alone. I will make and help
meet for him here, he says it's not good to be alone. Now, Paul
said it's good for a man not to touch a woman, but here he
says it's not good for a man to dwell alone. Now, if you don't
like being alone. A single state is not the state
for you if you don't like being alone. I mean, there's no doubt
about that. Some have the gift to be alone. And what a gift it is. It's a
blessed gift. But if you don't have that gift,
Lord's got somebody for you. I mean, I have no doubt about
that. You might not have that person yet, but the Lord has
got somebody for you. I think it's interesting. You
don't know who it is, but he does. He's already got all that
purpose and planned out. But he says, it's not good, I
will make a help meet for him. And this tells us what husband
and wife should be to one another. Help meets, help mates, however
you want to say that. What it means is, is the wife
is supposed to help the husband, to improve the husband, to improve
his character. I tell you what, I've been there
for that woman. I know that. I'm so thankful.
She's a true helpmate to me. You know, I've noticed in marriages
where there's not a real good communication between the man
and the woman, where the man is able to express to the woman,
this is not me. I don't know if there's such
a thing as constructive criticism, but there ought to be. I mean,
a good kind of criticism, I don't know if that's the right word,
a good kind of criticism where you help each other, you point
out each other's flaws and faults because you love each other and
you want the best for each other. And I've noticed where that is
not in a marriage, there's always these glaring faults in those
people. You need, husbands, you need
your wives to set you straight. In many things. Wives, you need
your husbands to set you straight. We just can't see. And we need
this helpmate. That's what this helpmate is
all about. We are to improve one another. Now, a husband and wife are a team.
They're a team. Yes. The man is the authority
in the home, according to the scriptures, and the wife is to
submit to his authority. That's what the word of God says.
God has a particular protocol, but there's still a team. Peter
calls it heirs together of the grace of life. And what a blessed privilege
it is to be an heir together of the grace of life. Now, communication is the key
to being a helpmate. Look in our text again, hold
your finger there in Genesis 2, we're going to come back to
it, but I want you to look in our text, 1 Corinthians 7. Verse 5, defraud ye not one the
other, except it be with consent. That means a sounding together,
a consent, an agreement. If you don't communicate to your
spouse or if you make it to where they're unable to communicate
to you because of your attitude, You're not being a helpmate to
your spouse. Now, there should be an open line of communication
where I can bear my soul and she can bear her soul to me.
We're to be true helpmates. We're to be true soulmates in
that sense. Now, that's very important. And
if I'm not making it to where Lynn can communicate to me freely,
I'm being wrong as a husband. And if I can't communicate to
her freely, and freely, I mean, I'm not being a help to her,
that's very important. Look back in Genesis two again,
you have your finger there, look in verse twenty one. I love this
passage of scripture because we see the gospel so clearly
in this and remember this about marriage, the point of marriage,
the purpose behind marriage is to illustrate the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ to us. That's the first purpose of it.
It's not just to bring people together. The church is Christ's
bride. I'm his bride. He's my husband. And that's the purpose behind
marriage is to illustrate the gospel of Christ. And we see
the gospel so clearly here. Look in Genesis 2, verse 21. And the Lord God caused a deep
sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept, and he took one
of his ribs and closed up the flesh instead thereof. And the
rib which the Lord God had taken from man made he a woman, and
he brought her unto the man. He caused the deep sleep to fall
over Adam. That's the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And what came from that deep sleep? This woman came
through this deep sleep, and that is the church of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Through his death, the church
is born and brought out. I mean, the gospels on every
line of the scripture. And you see it so clearly in
marriage. Now, verse 23, and Adam said, This is now bone of
my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman because
she was taken out of man. Therefore shall a man leave his
father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife." Your first
responsibility if you're married is your husband or wife, not
your mom and dad, your husband or your wife. And they too shall
be one flesh, which is a reference to the intimate act. They become
one flesh, just as Christ is one with his people. And they
were both naked, the man and his wife, and they were not ashamed. Now marriage is a God-ordained
institution and a great blessing. And a happy marriage is such
a happy thing. And an unhappy marriage is such
a miserable thing. I mean, a happy marriage is a
state of marital bliss. It's wonderful. But if I'm not
happy in my marriage, what a miserable, burdensome thing that is. I want
to be happily married, don't you? I want to honor the Lord
in my marriage. I want to be truly happily married
where I'm thankful that I'm married to the woman God's given to me.
A thankful attitude, not just enduring it, but a thankful attitude. I want to have this state of
marital bliss that I know that every believer ought to have.
Now, you would be better off not being married if you have
that gift. And there's some people who do
have that gift. There's a lot of people who don't, but there's
some people who do have that gift. Turn with me for a second
to Matthew chapter 19. The Pharisees also came unto
him, tempting him, and saying unto him, Is it lawful for a
man to put away his wife for every cause? And, you know, they
were divorced and left and right back then. That was just, you
know, if you if you get if your wife's got a blemish in her and
you don't like the way she looks, get rid of her. I mean, that's
that's the way they thought. And there's a there's an actual
scripture in there where the Lord says, if you're if your
wife because I can't remember it's on quote, you can look it
up yourself. But verse four, and he answered and said unto
them, have you not read that he which made them at the beginning
made them male and female and said, for this cause shall a
man leave? Father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife,
and they too shall be one flesh. Wherefore, there are no more
two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let no man put asunder." Well, they said unto him, why
did Moses then command to give a writing of divorcement and
to put her away? Because there is stuff in the Bible about that.
And he said unto them, Moses, because of the hardness of your
hearts, suffered you to put away your wives. Now, you think there
are some situations where if a woman was not able to be divorced
from her husband, she'd get beat to death. I mean, there's all
kinds of terrible situations because of the hardness of men's
hearts that he said he put this stuff about divorce in scripture.
But as far as the way it ought to be from the beginning, it
was not so. And I say unto you, whosoever shall put away his
wife, except it be for fornication, shall marry another, commit adultery.
And whoso marrieth her which is put away, to have committed
adultery, his disciples said unto him, If the case of the
man be so with his wife, it is not good to marry." Now that's
how they interpret this all. Well, we'd just be better off
not marrying at all. But he said unto them, All men
cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given. For
there are some eunuchs, unmarried persons, which were so born from
their mother's womb, and there are some eunuchs which were made
eunuchs of men, and there be eunuchs which have made themselves
eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake. He that's able to receive
it, let him receive it. You see, this is a gift that
not everyone has. Now back to our text in 1 Corinthians
chapter 7. Now concerning the things whereof
you wrote unto me, it's good for a man not to touch a woman
nevertheless. To avoid fornication, to avoid
sexual sin, sex outside of marriage, let every man have his own wife,
and let every woman have her own husband. If you don't have
this gift, you obviously would be better off being married. Sexual sin is to be avoided. And we considered that last week
out of 1 Corinthians 6, why that is. Now, let every man who does
not have this gift, let every Let him have his own wife, and
every woman who does not have this gift, let her have her own
husband. You see, most people have this
physical desire, this physical need. Most people need this,
and you know this. The intimate act outside of marriage
is forbidden, and we considered that last week from 1 Corinthians
6. So let every man have his own wife, and let every woman
have her own husband. Paul said, or whoever wrote Hebrew
said, marriage is honorable and all. And the bed is undefiled,
but whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. So let every
man have his own wife. Let every man or let every woman
have her own husband. Then he says in verse three.
Let the husband. Render. Pay dues. Let the husband render unto the
wife due benevolence. And likewise, also the wife unto
the husband. Now, here's the things that we
owe our spouse. Before God, I owe Lynn this. Due benevolence. Good will. It's her due. And if we fail
to render them this due benevolence, we're defrauding them. And look
what he says in verse 5. He says, Let the husband render
to the wife due benevolence what they have come unto them, and
likewise also the wife unto the husband. He says in verse 5,
Defraud ye not. One the other said to me with
consent for a time that you may give yourself to fasting and
prayer and come together again. But what he's saying is, if I
don't render to my spouse due penitence, what I'm doing is
defrauding her. I'm ripping her off. I'm not
giving her what is her due. You know, the Lord expects you. He expects you to live for your
spouse and to not do so is to sin against him. Turn over to
1 Peter chapter 3 for a second, let me show you this. 1 Peter chapter 3. Verse 7, Likewise,
ye husbands, dwell with them, your wives, according to knowledge. That according to knowledge means
according to love. That doesn't mean just knowing
the right things to do. We all know the right things
to do. But dwell with them according to love. That's what the word
means, according to love. giving honor unto the wife, as
unto the weaker vessels, as being heirs together of the grace of
life, that your prayers be not hindered." Now, if I'm not giving
honor to my wife as the weaker vessel, I'm hindering my fellowship
with the Lord itself. My prayers are actually hindered.
This is how important this thing is. Now, what does it mean to
render due benevolence? Well, you owe it to your spouse.
To be their helpmate. You owe it to your spouse to
be their best friend. To be their soulmate, to be their
rock, to be their anchor, to be their lover. Yes, I said to
be their lover. Your main purpose in this life,
humanly speaking, is to seek to please your spouse as your
chief responsibility in life. Look at verse 33, verse 7. But he that is married, careth
for the things that are of the world, how he may please his
wife. That's my purpose, to please
my wife. You're to seek to please them
by being a servant to them. You're to seek to please them
by being physically attractive to them, by living to please
them, by making them so happy that they're married to you.
Not that they're thinking, oh, I wish I wasn't married at this
age. I'm looking forward to dying. No, nothing like that. Nothing
like that. No, I'm to live to please them.
To please them. That's my responsibility before
the Lord, to please my wife. Her responsibility is to please
me. Now, if both people are seeking
to please each other, you have a state of marital bliss, don't
you? If I'm seeking to please Lynn, that's my objective. And
if she's seeking to please me, we're going to be so happily
married. We're just going to enjoy ourselves. We're going
to have a good time. But when I start becoming concerned
about her pleasing me, that's when there's trouble. When she
starts being concerned about how I please her, that's where
the trouble begins. My responsibility before the
Lord is to seek to please her. Now, when one or both of you
begin to think like that, how are they going to meet my needs?
We have a recipe for an unhappy marriage. I mean, it's just going
to happen if I'm if I'm concerned. about how my income is, if my
spouse is concerned with it, that is going to cause an unhappy
marriage. Where you have an unhappy marriage,
you have one or two very selfish, self-centered people. That's
the way it always works. Self-focused, self-centered people.
Now let's go on reading, verse 4, back to our text, 1 Corinthians
7. He says, Let the husband render to the wife due benevolence,
in verse 3. And likewise also the wife unto her husband. That's
our responsibility before the Lord. Then he says in verse 4,
the wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband. And likewise also the husband
hath not power of his own body, but the wife. Now what this refers
to is the intimate act of marriage. Now the Bible has a lot to say
about this. It's kind of funny. I was reading, even when I was
reading different commentaries and read things different individuals
said about chapter 6 and this chapter. The way these old time
Puritan guys would do, they'd say, we just won't talk about
this. Basically, it's about the way, you know, this is, we're
not even going to mention this. Now that's not right. The Bible
mentions it. The Bible's got a lot to say
about it. And he says, the wife hath not power of her own body,
but the husband, and likewise also, the husband hath not power
of his own body, but the wife. Wife, you have no right to withhold
yourself physically from your husband. Your body belongs to
them. Husbands, you have no right to
withhold yourself from your wife. Your body belongs to them, and
to withhold yourselves from one another is to defraud one another. Look what he says in verse five.
He says, defraud ye not one the other except to be with consent
for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer
and come together again that Satan tempt you not for your
incontinency. Now, there may be a time when
we should be giving ourselves, not to physical things, but just
giving ourselves, concentrating, he says, on fasting and prayer.
He says that there's consent. And this is, once again, this
communication. You know, there ought to be between a husband
and wife the ability to have consent. That's a sounding together,
a communication where you're actually communicating with one
another, not just mad and clamming up and going separately. No,
there's a communication, a consent, a sounding together. And he said
there are times when you ought to consent, give yourselves to
fasting and to prayer. Should believers fast? You know
what amazes me? We asked that question. There's so much in
the Bible about it. There's a lot in the Bible about
that. We're to give ourselves, he said, to fasting and prayer.
Remember when the disciple said to the Lord, how come we couldn't
cast this out, this demon out? I think it's in Matthew 17. And
the Lord said, this time come and talk for it, but by fasting
and prayer. That's what the word of God says.
So he says, if you can see, and what is this all about when there's
something I need direction. I need guidance. I need help. There's something that's just
burdened me and troubling me and so on. Whatever that might
be, I'm to give myself to fasting and prayer. And he says there's
a consent in this. There's an agreement. This is
what we're going to do. Now, he says, don't withhold yourself.
Defraud ye not one the other, except it be consent for a time
that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer. That word
consent is also agreement or concord. You have the same objective. You have the same objective.
Now, here's the way I would understand this. My objective. If I'm a believer,
this really is my objective. My objective is the glory of
Christ. If Lynn's a believer, her objective is the glory of
Christ. If we have the same objective,
we're going to do fine, aren't we? You know, I don't want Lynn
to love you better than she loves me. I want her to love me the
best. I want to be number one. Now,
there's no doubt about that, but I can also say this. I want
her to love Christ better than she does me, and there won't
be any jealousy. I want her to love Christ more
than me. And she wants me to love Christ better than her.
I guarantee you she does. Every believer feels that way.
And there's no jealousy. You're not at odds. There's an
agreement. There's a consent there. That's
where this consent comes from. I love Christ. She loves Christ.
I want her loving Christ better than she does me. That would
make me happy. It would actually make me happy. Now, I couldn't
say that about anybody else. But if she loves somebody better
than me, I'm upset. I'm mad. But if she loves Christ better
than me, I'm happy. He said, defraud ye not. Don't
rip each other off. Don't be wrong to each other,
except to be with consent for a time that you may give yourselves
to fasting and prayer and then come together again that Satan
tempt you not for your incontinency, your lack of control. Here's
what will happen if you do, Paul says, you'll begin to burn with
passion and Satan will tempt you for your lack of self-control.
Your temperance will be weakened. And the fact of the matter is,
is the flesh and blood need this intimacy. This physical intimacy,
the Lord made us that way. It's a natural desire in that
sense. And so he says, don't keep this
separation going. And then he says in verse six,
he says, but I speak this by permission and not of commandment. Now that word permission means
concession. Or allowance. Paul is saying,
I wish that everybody could be happy single. Just like me. But I realize that not everybody
has this gift, so I'm not going to insist upon a single life. I can't give you a commandment
to be single. But one of the things I thought
about this, he says, he says, I speak by concession and not
of commandment. You know, life's full of concessions,
isn't it? Now, we don't compromise the word of God. We don't compromise
the gospel message, but other than that, life is a series of
compromises, isn't it? If you're going to get along
with anybody, you're going to have to concede. There's going to have
to be compromises. There's going to have to be give
and take, go back here, go forward there. You're not going to get
along with anybody if there's not some compromising and concessions
going on. That's not a bad thing. It's
a gracious thing. It means you're growing in grace.
Somebody says, I don't want good. Well, ain't nobody going to like
you. I'll tell you that. There's got to be a series of
compromises and concessions. He says, I speak this by permission,
not of commandment, for I would that all men were even as I myself,
that every man had his proper gift of God, one after this manner
and another after that. Now, if you are not married,
you are better off being single, because if you're married, you're
going to have trouble in the flesh. Now, he says that, but
what he says in verse 27, are you bound unto why seek not to
be loosed? Are you loose from a wife? She's
not a wife. But if you marry, you've not sinned. And if a virgin
marries, she's not sinned. Nevertheless, such shall have
trouble in the flesh. In any relationship, there's
always going to be trouble in the flesh. You can just write
that down. And if you do not get married,
you're not going to have to be faced with that. You're going
to be able to serve the Lord without distraction. Look in
verse thirty three. He that is married careth for the things
that are of the world, that he may please his wife. There is
a difference also between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman
careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both
in body and spirit. But she that is married careth
for the things of the world, that she may please her husband.
And this I say for your own profit, not that I may cast a snare upon
you, but for that which is comely, that you may attend upon the
Lord without distraction. And that is what happens in not
being married. You're enabled by the grace of God to attend
upon the Lord without the distraction that you deal with your husband,
your wife. There's a liberation and a freedom
in that. So in that sense, single is good. And I realize sometimes single
people feel like they're a third wheel, but you shouldn't. The
Bible says you're better off. You're better off. It's a blessed
state to be in. And there's nothing wrong with
being married. There's nothing wrong with being
single. Either way, but being single,
according to the Scriptures, is the better state. Now, we
see that clearly from this passage of Scripture. He says in verse 9 of 1 Corinthians,
this is the last verse we're going to look at. He says in verse 8, I say, therefore,
to the unmarried and widows, it's good for them if they abide
even as I, but if they cannot contain, let them marry, for
it's better to marry than to burn. Now, he's dealing with
the physical desires that everybody is born with. And he says, if
you're just consumed with these in this single state, obviously
you'd be better off getting married. It's better to marry than to
burn the passion. It's better to be married, he's saying. So
obviously, if this is an issue with you as far as being single,
you say, I can't stand the thought of being single. I can't stand
the thought of being alone. I can't stand the thought of
being without any kind of intimate physical relationship. You don't
have a chance. The Lord will provide you a spouse
in his due time, but if you can stay away from it, you're better
off. Now, how do I end this message? If you're single. Ask the Lord
to give you the grace to attend upon him without distraction.
Give yourself wholeheartedly to him. And if you're married,
the way you serve the Lord is by being a good spouse. That's the way you serve the
Lord, living to please your spouse. And to not do so, understand
this, to not do so is sin against God. And it causes our prayers
to be hindered. That's what the Bible says. Our
prayers are hindered. Now, I want my marriage, I want
my whole life, I want my family to honor and glorify the Lord
Jesus Christ in every aspect of it. Every aspect. And may
the Lord give us grace to glorify him in whatever state we're in. Whether it's, you know, there
are people who are divorced. Well, glorify God in that state. I mean, that's where you're at.
Glorify God in that state. Single, glorify God in that state. Married, glorify God in that
state. May we all be given a zeal to
honor the Lord in whatever state he's placed us in. Let's close
by looking at Ephesians chapter five. I just want to read this
passage of scripture to remind us what marriage is and what
it represents. Lives, verse 22. Lives, submit yourselves under
your own husbands. As unto the Lord. Can you submit to the Lord? Well,
sure you can. Will you submit to your husband
the same way you do the Lord? That's the command of the scriptures,
and you know, you can only submit because you want to. You'll only
submit because that's what you want to do. It's impossible to,
as a matter of fact, if somebody submit, you're going to come
out swinging. You can only submit because that's what you want
to do for Christ's sake. Wives, submit to your own husbands as
unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church, and he's
the Savior of the body. Therefore, as the church is subject
unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Now, ladies, there's your responsibility. Be subject to your husbands in
everything for Christ's sake. For Christ's sake, for the Lord's
sake, that's enough of a reason. You need no other reason. You
do it for Christ's sake. It's the right thing to do. You
see, it's not that males are superior to females. In Christ, there's neither male
or female. There's neither bond or creed.
There's no black or white. All those questions of distinction
are gone. As a matter of fact, in glory, in glory, all this
marriage stuff won't even be in glory. It won't even be there. We won't have these family relationships.
We won't have these That's not going to be. We're going to be
as the angels of God. The Lord teaches that. I mean,
it's hard for me to get a hold of this, but it's going to happen
there. That's that's not going to take place. All this. These
relationships will not be. Verse 25. Husbands. Love your wives. Even as Christ
also loved the church. Now, what a command that is.
You're called upon to love your wives as Christ loved the church,
and he gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse
it with the washing of water by the word, that he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives
as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth
himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth
and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church. For we are members
of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause
shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined
unto his wife, and they too shall be one flesh. And this is a great
mystery. But I speak concerning Christ
and the Church. That is the primary focus of this. Nevertheless,
let every one of you in particular so love his wife, even as himself. And the wives see that she reverence
her husband. Let's pray together.