Partnership in Marriage

Once a college professor came to my house and invited me to speak in a family conference. He had arranged the conference for believing families in his area. I asked him, “What is the topic that you want me to deal with in the family conference?” He replied “It is on partnership in the family life”. Then I asked him, “What is the reason for selecting the topic on partnership for your conference?” He said, “It is because there are many believing families in my area. All of them attend the church
regularly. They even give for the ministry. But they fail to involve in a ministry as a family”. Today there are thousands of such believing families in all major cities and towns of our country. But
only a few of them involve in the ministry as a family and others are just like the spectators in a game. The important reason for their non-involvement in the ministry is their misunderstanding of
the status and role of women in the family and in the ministry.
Dr Warren W. Wiersbe, the great author and the Bible preacher, once wrote about the partnership in his family, “If my wife did not manage all the affairs of the household, pay the bills, and keep the machine running, I could never get all my work done. The Lord knew what I needed when he gave her to me”. Dr Wiersbe could involve in the ministry as a family mainly because he understood his role and his wife understood her role, and they considered both of them equal and important in the family. Dr Wiersbe involved in the ministry and Mrs. Wiersbe stood behind him and supported him by all means.
In our country women are looked down and not considered equal to men. They are given a second status. The women are also forced to accept themselves as inferior to men. So they cannot play their
major role in the family and in the ministry. Let us see what the Bible teaches on the status and role of women in the family as partners in the ministry.

1. The helper comparable to her husband: The Lord created Adam and found that he needed a helper. So He said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him” Gen 2:18. Here the Bible says that the Lord created Eve comparable to Adam. Again the Bible says, “Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him” Gen 2:20. So Eve is not only a
helper but also equal to Adam. If this truth, that the wife is a ‘helper comparable to her husband’, is understood properly, then most of the problems in the married life will be resolved. The husband will not boss over his wife, and the wife will not dominate her husband. They will
consider themselves equal. They will help each other as partners in the ministry.

2. The companion to her husband by a covenant: The Bible says that the wife is a companion to her husband and she should not be treated treacherously. “Yet you say, ‘For what reason?’ Because the Lord has been witness between you and the wife of your youth with whom you have dealt treacherously, yet she is your companion and your wife by covenant”. Mal 2:14. In a marriage the husband accepts wife as a companion by covenant before God on the marriage day. So he must treat her as a companion and give her the responsibilities at home. She should not be considered as a servant or an object. At the same time the wife must also accept her role in the family, and help her husband in all possible ways.

3. The crown to her husband: The Bible says, “An excellent wife is the crown of her husband, but she who causes shame is like rottenness in his bones” Prov 12:4. The crown is a circular head ornament worn as a mark of honour. It shows the governing power in a monarchy, and it also means completion or consummation. So wife is a mark of honour in the house and she completes all the needs of her husband and the family. The wife must accept and do justice to this responsibility at home, and the husband must give her the due status in the family.

4. A good one to her husband: “He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favour from the Lord” Prov 18:22. Here we read that the wife is good for the family, and she brings favour from the Lord. In some families the women are treated as inferior to men. These families will have the favour of the Lord only when they accept that the wives are good, equal and they are needed in the family.

5. The weaker vessel and heirs together of the grace of life: “Likewise you husbands, dwell with them with understanding, giving honour to the wife, as to the weaker vessel, and as being heirs
together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered” I Pet 3:7. The Bible says that the wife is a weaker vessel and so the husband must live with her with understanding. The husband must give the due honour to his wife, because she is the heir together of the grace of
life. When the husband understands the wife as a weaker one and also the heir of eternal life,then he will live with her with understanding. Today we need husbands who live with their wives with understanding and give them the due honour. Such people will be used in the ministry, for the Bible says that their prayers will never be hindered. May the Lord raise Christian families where these biblical truth will be practised and God’s name will be glorified in our country.