Ephesians 4:26 - "Be angry and do not sin. Don’t let the sun go down on your anger...."
Yesterday we pondered the Scriptural application that Domestic Violence is always a sin and abusive speech is never an acceptable way to communicate according to God's Word.
Today, we will consider two other truths that the Bible wants us to understand when it comes to Intimate Partner Violence.
First, let us realize that the Bible makes it clear that violence is never justified - even when it is provoked. We are responsible to respond with wisdom, clarity, and restraint. Paul reminds us in the Ephesian passage above that we are allowed to be angry - but we are not to sin in this anger. Jesus in Luke 6:45 spoke these words - "A
good man produces good out of the good storeroom of his heart. An evil
man produces evil out of the evil storeroom, for his mouth speaks from
the overflow of the heart." When we react with violence we show what is inside of us - what is on the shelves in our storeroom. The old adage - "What is down in the well comes up in the bucket" is based on this. A person who reacts with anger is in actuality an angry person.
The second muse today is that the Bible teaching on leadership in the home does not give the husband unlimited power over his wife. He does not have the right to remove her choices, or to have his own way with her at any time. Consider what Jesus taught His disciples as far as power and authority - Mark 10:42 - 45 - "Jesus called them over and said to them, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles dominate them, and their men of high positions exercise power over them. But it must not be like that among you. On the contrary, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life —a ransom for many." To be powerful - one must be a servant or slave to the ones they are around.
Paul spoke to this in Ephesians 5. In verses 1 and 2 we read - "Therefore, be imitators of God, as dearly loved children. And walk in love, as the Messiah also loved us and gave Himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God." And Paul makes this application to the husband/wife relationship in verses 21 - 29 - a passage often misused to describe male domination over a woman - "submitting to one another in the fear of Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church...." Notice - it says to submit one to another. Also muse over the fact that wives are to submit to the husband like the church submits to Christ. Husbands are to love their wives to the point of dying for them. what woman wouldn't submit to a man who is will to die for her.
Tomorrow we will muse over the final Scriptural Applications we are going to make dealing with DV and IPV.
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