Hi, everyone. I am Joe Infranco and welcome to God Today. I work for a ministry right now called the Alliance Defending Freedom. It was interesting, when I left New York after 25 years of private practice. I had to go to my dear wife whom I love very much. I told her, “I think the Lord is leading us across the country.” It was an interesting reaction. I think she first said something to me like, “You must be out of your mind.”
Fortunately, for me, she is a woman who loves the Lord. We prayed and God took care of the details. Marriage is a partnership. Marriage is something you learn to live and walk through together. Peter exhorts us in 1 Peter to live with our wives according to knowledge. He uses a Greek word that means personal, relational knowledge. He also says something interesting, “Honoring them as the weaker vessel.”
That has been really misunderstood. The weaker vessel to me means simply this: a vessel is a bowl, or glass, or something you drink from. The weaker vessel just means it is easier to break. It doesn’t mean it is less valuable. If I had a fine crystal, china in one hand, and one of my grandkids’ plastic sippy cups in the other, and I dropped them both, one would break. One I care about and the other I wouldn’t care about. The one that would break is the one that is more valuable.
See, what the weaker vessel refers to is this: our wives are more attuned to their emotions and how they are feeling. I tend to kind of be a clunker. I just don’t always get things. My wife can tell my mood just by looking at me. I have trouble telling when she is upset, unless I hear her crying. In which case, my first thought is, “Why did she have to get upset now? The basketball game is in over time!”
This is just the way men and women work. The scripture exhorts me to do something different – live with my wife according to knowledge of who she is. You know something, when I love my wife the way that scripture says, when I love her the way Christ loves the Church, when I esteem her and become one with her, she makes me a better man. When Jesus talked in Matthew 19:4-5, that it was God’s design, that God made the two one. When I, as a man, love and serve my wife, I become a little more like Christ. That is the way God intended it to be.
The differences you have – don’t make them a source of contention. See God’s amazing and wonderful plans. I have had a 36 year journey with my wife. I love her more every year, I look forward to it. I encourage you to take that attitude into your home, into your marriage. God has put your wife, and women: God has put your husband there for your betterment. For your protection. He has made the two of you one to serve Him.
Father, thank you for a day that we can celebrate what you have done in marriages. We ask you to strengthen the marriages of those watching, to move in lives, and transform hearts to worship you. In Jesus’ name. Hey, it is always great to be with you. Thanks! I am Joe Infranco, this has been God Today.