Ephesians 5:21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit to your husband’s as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body.
31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Ephesians 6:1,5 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ.
observation
The standard operating procedure for the average person is to look out for number one. That’s how we operate in our relationships and that is why we get in trouble.
The Bible tells us that we are to do relationships the way Jesus did relationships. Jesus never demanded respect, he never demanded that he be treated fairly and he kept his purpose in mind and submitted to God’s will for his life.
People came to him every day with selfish motives, no doubt that many people that he healed didn’t believe he is the Messiah, and they just wanted their life to be easier. The Pharisees came to him to plot against him to protect their position politically and so that their power would be preserved.
He is run out of his home town, his friends deny they know him, all except the one that betrayed him and then he is tried in a court that has already decided his fate.
It is interesting that Paul tells us how to relate to each other and we are expected to do it. There isn’t any fine print or asterisks that give us a way out if the other person doesn’t perform up to our expectations. That’s how Jesus operated, no matter how he was taken advantage of or mistreated, he always displayed love for each and every person, and he showed his love all the way to the cross.
application
I will show the same kind of love that Jesus displayed even when people were taking advantage of him or treating him unfairly.
prayer
Give me the grace and patience to go against the flow and put others first no matter how poorly they may treat me.
