Lesson 13-The Excellent Wife

In last week's lesson Mrs. Peace gave us four Biblical Means to Achieve the Goal of Oneness and Spiritual Growth:

1. Make your marriage a matter of faithful prayer.
2. Commit to a biblical course of action.
3. Take personal responsibility for your own failures and repent.
4. Submit and participate in the process of "mutual sanctification."

We learned how we needed to be praying that our marriages would glorify and please God and that we should be pursuing a course of action based upon the Scriptures. We saw how we needed to search our hearts asking God to show us our sin and repenting of it. Then we started discussing mutual sanctifcation which is the biblical process of each spouse helping the other become more like Christ. Now we will continue with a chart Mrs. Peace has included on pages 38 and 39.

TESTING OR PRESSURES	SCRIPTURE REFERENCES	POTENTIAL CHARACTER QUALITIES
1. Getting along with your husband	Ephesians 4:1-3 Philippians 4:2,3	Humility, forbearance, love, diligence, patience Living in harmony
2. Suffering for the Lord's sake	1 Peter 4:12,13	Joy, gratefulness, deeper trust in God
3. Other's sin (possibly your husband's)	1 Peter 3:8,9	Harmoniousness, sympathy, brotherliness, kindheartedness, humility
4. Financial pressures	Philippians 4:11,12	Contentment
5. Daily work	Colossians 3:23 1 Thessalonians 4:11,12	Working heartily from the heart Behaving properly, financially responsible
6. Illness (due to sin)	James 5:14,15	Repentance
7. Trials (temptations, testings)	James 1:2,3,12	Joy, endurance
8. Providentially hindered	James 4:13-16	Mindful of God's sovereignty
9. Death of a loved one	1 Thessalonians 4:13-13	Hopeful in the Lord
10. Bearing other's burdens	Galatians 6:2	Love
11. Admonished by other's	Romans 15:14 1 Thessalonians 5:14 Colossians 1:28,29 Colossians 3:16	Perseverance, patience, wisdom, diligence, gratefulness, humility

Under the last point of "Admonished by others" we find the heart of mutual sanctification. After He saves us, God works in the heart of each individual to make us more like His Son. He also helps couples in this process of becoming more like Christ. One way is by the husband and wife learning how to properly give and receive reproof.

Mrs. Peace says on page 39, "A reproof is an expression of censure or rebuke. A biblical reproof is telling someone what they are doing wrong with the intent to restore them to a right relationship with God.
When a Christian husband or wife reproves their partner they are pointing out sin in that person's life."

Loving reproof should be done privately (Matthew 18:15) and with gentleness of spirit with the motive of restoring the other person (Galatians 6:1). If a man and wife love God and their spouse, they will practice biblically reproving one another in love. How we receive the reproof from our husbands is an indication of how much we desire to be like Christ. Next week we will search this subject in more depth learning the right way to respond to reproof, guidelines for reproving your husband, and how you can know you are receiving reproof from your husband sinfully.

These lessons are getting harder and harder for the flesh to want to take. We might find ourselves saying, "My husband reprove me!!!!" Yes, we must submit to the Word of God.
I John 5:3 "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous." We can obey and submit to God's Word now out of a heart of love.

Let us prepare our hearts this week for next week's lesson on receiving Biblical reproof from our husbands by studying the chart in our lesson, Ways God Helps Us Become More Like Christ. When under testing and trial, do we see Godly character qualities in our lives? Are the trials having their perfect work in our lives by making us conformed to Christ? Let us study the Scriptures listed in the chart to see what God requires of us.
His Word gives us His perfect will for us. We should walk in love, humility, kindness, patience, joy, contentment, hope, gratefulness, forbearance, and diligence, recognizing that God is sovereign over all and has total rights to our love and allegience.

Romans 12:1 "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service."

Taken from "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace, pp 33-45. Copyright 1999, Focus Publishing, Bemidji, Minnesota. Used with permission for the purposes of this devotional series only. May not be reproduced or forwarded without the express consent of the publisher.