The Christian way of life is not a smorgasbord.
Okay, you don't just take the parts of the Christian life
that you like and then reject the parts you don't like.
It's a package deal.
You got to take the whole thing.
The good and the quote unquote evil,
the good and the bad and the ugly,
you got to take it all friend,
because God's word and the Christian way of life
is not a smorgasbord where you pick what you like
and you leave behind what you don't like.
Ephesians 5 22 says this,
wives submit yourselves under 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 is the savior of the body.
Therefore, as the church is subject unto Christ,
so let the wives be to their own husbands and everything.
Husbands, love your wives,
even as Christ also loved the church
and 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.
Jump down to verse 33.
Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular,
so love his wife, even as himself,
and see that the wife see that she reverence her husband.
Now think about this, from the world's perspective, right?
Women who are exposed to a Christian way of life,
or they see what it's like to be a Christian wife
or have a Christian marriage,
I think there are some good things
about the Christian way of life
that even an unsaved person would look at
and say, I like that.
That's good, I like that.
For example, how about having a husband
that's faithful to you?
I'll bet you even worldly women out there,
they want a husband that's faithful to them.
They don't want their husband whoring around.
They don't want their husband committing adultery.
They don't want their husband here today and gone tomorrow.
They want their husband faithful to them.
True or false?
They don't want their husband committing adultery.
You know what they want?
A husband that loves them.
Husbands love your wives.
Boy, they like that.
How about a husband that provides for you?
Even an unsaved person out in the world,
even a person who has no interest in Christianity,
boy, if they saw that, hey, a husband who pays the bills?
I mean, there's even hip hop songs about that, amen?
So basically, you know, a husband that pays the bills?
Great!
A husband that loves you?
Great!
A husband that doesn't commit adultery?
Wonderful!
How about a good father to the children?
An involved father, a good father?
How about a husband who wants to have children at all?
You know, some women are out there,
they wanna have children,
their husband's like, no more, we'll just have one,
we'll just have two.
How about a husband that wants to have more?
So those are the good things, quote unquote,
'cause I'm speaking from a worldly perspective here,
those are the good things about being a Christian wife.
Okay, now from the world's perspective I'm speaking now,
the evil things, right?
The bad things about being a Christian wife.
You have to obey your husband.
You have to dress modestly.
You have to have a lot of children.
You have to homeschool.
You know, you don't get to have the career
that you wanted or whatever.
You know, this is what the world would look at,
the Christian way of life.
They'll look at the Christian godly wife,
and they'll say, oh man, isn't that terrible?
That she has to obey her husband, dress modestly.
She can't have a career, she's home with the kids,
she's cooking and cleaning and taking care of the house.
But let me tell you something, it's a package deal.
So here's what we have today.
We have a bunch of Christian women
that are like Job's wife,
where they wanna receive the good things
from the hand of the Lord, but not the evil things.
So basically they say, oh yeah,
I want my husband to be faithful.
Oh yeah, I don't want my husband to commit adultery.
Oh, I want a husband who pays the bills.
I want a husband who loves me,
even as he loves his own body.
I want a husband who nourishes and cherishes me
and provides for me, but I don't want to obey him.
I don't want to dress modestly.
I want to do what I want.
I'm going to do whatever I want.
I don't want to submit to him.
So you see what they're trying to do.
They're trying to have their cake and eat it too.
They want to take all the good things from the Lord
and then all the quote unquote good things from this world
and try to have the best of both worlds here.
Instead of saying, okay, whatever the Lord says,
I'll take all of it.
The stuff I like and the stuff I don't like.
The positive and the negative.
The easy and the difficult.
Whatever the Lord has, I'll take it.