The following is a transcript of the video above, edited for readability.
So many of those things can become controversial and they don't need to be. I think the Bible is very clear on that. God is very clear on those things. Loving your husband, loving your children, the being keepers at home sometimes stumbles. It causes us to stumble a little and make people think, "Well, should I be working outside the home? Should I not be working?" And to me that is something that the keeper at home is a phrase that really means, are you a good manager of your home? Can you keep your home in order? I don't think it's saying absolutely do not work. I think there are certain circumstances where women have to work outside the home, but I think keeping your children, your husband, your family, your home in order, and if that means you staying home to do so, I think it's one of the greatest privileges that a woman can have.
I know I have benefited so much from that, raising my own children and I'm very thankful for that, that I have had that opportunity to do that. And I think if there's any way possible that women can stay home and raise their children and care for their husbands in that way, that it's a wonderful blessing of God. I would also say that the phrase it being obedient to their own husbands can sometimes also cause some feathers to be ruffled. But I think that if we look at scripture, something that I've always believed, haven't really had a problem with, I don't always do it well, but is submission. And first Peter 3:1 says that wives likewise be submissive to your own husbands, even if some do not obey the word, they without a word may be won by the conduct of their wives. I've always taught ladies be submissive.
You see the word says be submissive. God is clear about that and certainly not a doormat. And we could get into all of those things that would take a lot of time, but I never saw the reason why. And within the last say six or eight years, God has graciously shown me that the gospel carries over into our lives in such a real way. It wasn't just what saved me, but the gospel is something to be lived out in everyday life. And it was one of those amazing moments of realization when I saw the word likewise. And in some translations it says, in the same manner, or therefore wives be submissive to your own husbands.
Never did I question what was that manner or like what, and you have to read above that. There were no chapter and verse divisions. And so you go to the end of chapter two and it talks about Christ for to this you were called in verse 21 because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example. 23, when He was reviled, He did not revile, when he was suffered, He did not threaten but committed Himself to him who judges righteously.
Then it goes on down wives in the same way or in the same manner you submit to your own husband. So I want to live my life in everything in submission to my husband, in my giving, in my hospitality, in forgiving other people, by always looking through the lens of the gospel and going back to the cross and seeing what was done for me. If Christ went to the cross without saying a word for me, I need to live in that example, by that example in being submissive to my husband. So I think we take all of those Titus two phrases and many more principles in scripture that women should follow and tie them to the gospel. I think that we live a very joyfully obedient life that way.
(Article first published June 24, 2013)
