HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!! 

I hope that Sunday, June 17 is a day that all Father's everywhere will feel the love that God gives and feel close to those that you call family! This is God's plan-to bring families closer together today than they were yesterday.

Men have a distinct role in life. 

The Bible is full of commands and principles for men to live by as they provide leadership their families and most of all, to their own lives. I think in particular, God is concerned how we men treat our spouses and women in general. Let us consider these thoughts from a sermon that I preached on Father's Day several years ago:
How should men treat women? Here are some things the Bible says:




With purity.
1 Timothy 5:2 "Treat older women as you would your mother, and treat younger women with all purity as you would your own sisters."
-Paul told Timothy to treat younger women as if they were his sisters, "with all purity."
-Impure sexual joking (Eph. 5:3,4) or sexual activity outside of marriage is forbidden (Heb. 13:4).


With understanding.
1 Peter 3:7 "In the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner in God’s gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered."
-Husbands are to be understanding as they live with their wives.
-Men need to invest the time and energy it takes to try to understand how a woman thinks, feels, and acts. Men must not expect women to be like them.
-Husbands are to honor their wives so their "prayers may not be hindered." (WOW!) Do I really want my prayers to be hindered? If not, I need to look at how I am treating my wife!
-By the way, if you think that men and women are totally alike in their thinking, please check out this book from Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Mars-Women-Venus-Communication-Relationships/dp/006016848X


With Mutual Love and Submission:  


Ephesians 5:21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.


22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.


25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.


31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.




With submission? "Wait a minute," you might say. "Isn't the man supposed to be the leader?" Yes, but the Scripture also says, "submitting to one another in the fear of God" (Eph. 5:21). That doesn't contradict the headship of the husband, but it does mean that the man is to be self-sacrificing--loving as Christ loved us and gave His life for us. Christ's concept of leadership is not that of a dictator, but it is that of a servant-leader.

"Leadership does not necessarily mean superiority"

Thinking It Over. How do men treat women in your family, your church, your community?