Sermon Title: "Christian Wives and Husbands"  (Jim Womer)

Sermon Summary: 

The Gospel changes everything. When we are born again, God changes our hearts and our relationships. Women who converted to Christianity in the early church faced opposition from their culture and their own husbands. Wives, in the Greco-Roman world, were supposed to worship the gods their husband worshipped and to associate with the people their husband wanted them to associate with. This was part of the social code. Christ gave the women a new identity and a new community that could place her at odds with her family. Peter’s answer was for the women to submit to their husbands and to lead holy and gentle lives that point their husbands to Christ. This submission is not out of fear or social pressure but is to be done for the sake of Christ. Husbands are to endeavor to understand their wives and to honor them. Marriage points us to our need of Christ. No husband perfectly understands and honors his wife and no wife perfectly respects her husband. Marriage can be a wonderful relationship, but it is Christ who truly satisfies us.