MY MARRIAGE IS HONOURABLE
MY MARRIAGE IS HONOURABLE
A DAILY DEVOTIONAL
SATURDAY, MAY, 4, 2024
NIYI ODUNSI
WIVES AND PHILEO
That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, Titus 2:4
Did you know that there’s nowhere in the Bible where God commanded wives to love their husbands like he commanded husbands to love their wives? The only place you find anything about wives loving their husbands is in our theme scripture and the word used is Phileo, not Agape. God said the older women should teach the younger ones how to make friends with their husbands.
Agape is not something you have to learn because it is a decision borne out of the Will and the intellect. Phileo however is something you have to learn. Apostle Paul tells Titus his protegee to instruct the older women in his congregation to teach the young women to make friends with their husbands.
While it is the husband’s responsibility to love his wife unconditionally, it is the wife’s responsibility to make friends with the husband. The reason is not far fetched. In Ephesians 5:22, God commands wives to submit to their own husbands. The Amplified Bible says a wife should also adapt herself to her husband. Adaptation is submission.
There is no way a wife can adapt to her husband without getting to know him. This is where Friendship comes in and a wife has to learn to make friends with her husband. Everything we learnt about being friends yesterday comes in here. A wife should not expect her husband to take full responsibility for becoming friends with her.
The challenge with some marriages is that couples get married and still have outsiders as their best friends. This should not be so. Your spouse must become your best friend, the only one with whom you share secrets, if you have any. Keeping an outsider as a best friend is dangerous. You are inviting that outsider into your marriage. Discussing what goes on in your marriage with a third party will wreck your marriage, eventually.
It bears repetition, a couple must consciously work towards becoming friend friends and then becoming best friends if their marriage is to be a successful marriage.
PRAYER
I thank you Lord, for granting me insight to the importance of learning to become friends and best friends with my spouse. I take Grace to extricate myself from any relationship that could potentially harm my marriage. Amen.
FURTHER STUDY
Ephesians 5:22, Titus 2:4