He is to know and apply the law of God in the home. A husband is
responsible to represent his wife and his family in the culture.
In His incarnation, Jesus was revealed not only as the perfect
prophet of God and our great high priest but also as king of heaven
and earth. He is once again our model for how we as husbands are to
rule in our homes. For the sake of our wives, we must assume our true
kingly role and lead with humble hearts and loving service for our
wives. Here are some practical steps a husband can take as he seeks to
take on the mantle of a servant-king:
Examine your leadership.As a husband, have you abused the lead-
ership and authority God has entrusted to you? Do you have a ten-
dency to be a self-serving, domineering leader? Do you recognize that
as a distortion of God’s design?
Or have you instead been passive? Have you disengaged from the
responsibility to lead your home and your family, leaving your wife to
assume that position?
Or have you taken on the responsibility of serving your wife with-
out accepting the responsibility to lead her?
You’re in there somewhere. Almost certainly, you have a natural,
sinful pattern that characterizes your leadership. When you slip up as
a husband, you probably find yourself slipping in the same direction
over and over again. God wants to steady your footing. It begins by
agreeing with Him that you have a tendency to be either a domineer-
ing or a passive leader—or a husband who only serves without also
leading.
God is calling us as husbands to repent, to change. We are to lock
our sites on the example of the perfect Leader, and then follow in His
footsteps. As we grow in our understanding of our role as king, and as
we begin to apply the truth of Scripture in our marriage, God will
make us into the kind of leaders He has called us to become.
Start leading!I’ve never forgotten a quote I read once, attributed to
C. S. Lewis (although I’ve never been able to pinpoint the source).
“The best way to acquire a virtue,” he is reported to have said, “is to
act as if you already have it.”
As husband and wife, it’s time to sit down and begin to discuss
110 BUILDINGSTRONGFAMILIES