THE PRUDENT WIFE

"... and a prudent wife is from the LORD. . ." Prov. 19:14b

Encouragement for Ladies by Vicki Dowell

I recently heard that a "Christian" friend of mine divorced her husband last year. I had lost contact with her shortly before it, and was saddened by the news. She is again in the statistics of divorce, as it was her second one. When my husband was counseling another friend not to divorce her husband, I heard her make the comment, "Well, I have peace about it," right before she walked out and slammed the door on him. It hurts me to remember the many other marriages that I have known to have broken up while claiming to have had a biblical foundation. This is not the example the church should set before the eyes of the world. Yet often it is. What is God*s view on the subject of divorce?

In Matt. 5:32 Jesus said, "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery. and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery." Malachi 2:16 tells us that the Lord God of Israel ". . .hateth putting away:" It has been God*s design for the family since creation that "a man (shall) leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh" Eph. 5:31 and Gen. 2:2 4. Paul discusses the topics of marriage and divorce in 1 Cor. 7. Rather than combing the scriptures trying to find a loophole to get out of a marriage with God*s blessing, time would be better spent meditating upon passages such as 1 Cor. 13, where God says charity (love) suffers long (Do you suffer long? The fruit of the Spirit is also longsuffering in Gal. 5:22); love is kind; love isn*t discontent or jealous over another*s advantage or possessions; love doesn’t boast or brag on itself it is not proud; love doesn’t act unbecomingly; love behaves properly. Love doesn’t demand its own way. Love isn*t easily provoked. Are you quick to get mad? Love doesn’t think evil; it isn*t happy about sin; but it delights in the truth. Love bears everything, believes everything, hopes everything, endures everything. Love never fails. Many marriages could be saved if just one person would follow God*s pattern. So often, when a spouse doesn’t do what they should, the other one doesn’t either. They think their spouse*s misbehavior justifies their own, but it doesn’t. Each one of us is responsible to obey God ourselves, regardless of what our spouse does. "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself and the wife see that she reverence her husband" Eph. 5:33. These two instructions are not conditional upon each other. One person shouldn’t wait until the other person performs. It behooves you to heed God*s command to you. It is certainly easier when the other party obeys the Lord, but it is not a prerequisite.

I think my girlfriend probably knew what I would tell her if I found out beforehand about her intentions to divorce her husband. I suppose she didn’t want to hear it.