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Jesus was well aware of the usual take on how leadership is exercised (see Matthew 20:25-28). "But among you it should be quite different," he told his disciples, modeling the servant-leader concept. As Jesus sacrificed himself for the Church he leads, today's passage explains, husbands are called to do the same for the wives they lead.

Romans 15:2-3

1. How does "reverence for Christ" (v. 21) radically affect how marriage functions for two Christians?
2. Does the example of Christ (v. 23) restrict or expand how masculine headship of a marriage is defined?
3. How (vv. 25-27) might a husband point his wife to an intimacy with God? … to cleansing by his Word?
4. How (v. 29) can a husband lovingly care for his wife with regard to her daily activities? … her mental development? … her emotional well-being?
5. How does a husband giving his wife's desires equal weight with his own underscore the two-united-in-one ideal (v. 31) of biblical marriage?
6. Can you affirm the validity of verse 28b from your own experience?

Ask God to motivate and teach you how to sacrificially model servant-leadership in your marriage.

21And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 22For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

25For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God's word. 27He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30And we are members of his body.

31As the Scriptures say, "A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one." 32This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Copyright © 2008 by the author or Christianity Today International/Men of Integrity magazine.Click here for reprint information on Men of Integrity.

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Prayer for the Week

Deliver me, sovereign Lord, from attempting to manage You. Help me to honor You by trusting and submitting to Your control.

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