Lesson 10-The Excellent Wife

The following is a summary adaptation of material from "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace.

Do you have problems in your relationships to your husband, children, mother, co-worker, etc? We have learned in past lessons that sin is our root problem. We need to learn how to deal withthe sin in our lives first by having our sins nailed to the cross and then daily confessing those sins that we commit because of this fleshly body we still inhabit. God's Word will help us find godly patterns in relationships for us to follow. The best example we have of this pattern is found in the Trinity. The Triune Godhead is a living example to us of a perfect relationship.

God first designed relationships and gives us many examples in the Bible. We think of how He walked with Adam in the garden; He dined with Abraham and made a covenant with him; He provided for Joseph in Egypt and prepared him for his place of service, He made David a king and gave him a heart to please God. More importantly He provided a way for sinful man to be reconciled to a right relationship with Himself through Christ's death on the cross.

Shortly before he died, Christ prayed for those that would believe on Him that God would make them holy through the Truth and that they would become one with God. At the same time Jesus also prayed that believers would have perfect and complete unity in their relationship not only with God but also with each other. In relation to these thoughts read Christ's intercessory prayer found in John 17:21-23.

This unity that Christ is praying for was lost when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden. By dying on the cross, Christ gained for all who believe restored fellowship with God through faith and repentance in His shed blood. All who are united with Christ have this positional unity that He prayed for in John seventeen. The husband and wife are united by God into "one flesh."(Genesis 2:24) Mrs. Peace further explains it on page 28 as "The Hebrew word for 'one' is 'echad' which means 'one, alike, altogether, or all at once.' The very same word is used in Deuteronomy 6:4for 'the Lord is one.' In other words, somehow God makes the husband and wife into 'one' as theTrinity is one, a compound unity."

Just as there is harmony in the Godhead, there can be harmony in a marriage relationship if we follow after God's perfect plan. Below is a chart that shows the perfect unity in the Trinity asopposed to the disharmony in man's relationships because of sin.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TRINITY Result in perfect harmony and intimacy.	CHARACTERISTICS OF FALLEN MAN Result in lack of harmony and intimacy.
1. Tender, compassionate, and merciful.	1. Not gentle, unmerciful, and cruel.
2. Open and transparent.	2. Closed, private, and self-protective.
3. Goodness towards the other shown by glorifying the other.	3. Malice towards the other shown in tearing the other down to build up self.
4. Love--sacrificial actions for the other.	4. Self-seeking--actions for self.
5. Perfect communication with each other.	5. Hurt each other by not communicating biblically.
6. Honest and truthful, committment to a righteous standard.	6. Deceitful, lying, and committed to self.
7. Perfect knowledge and understanding of each other.	7. Limited knowledge and revelation of each other.
8. Reliable and faithful in their relationship.	8. Unreliable, unfaithful, and lacking in trust to the conditional basis of their relationship. ("If you will, then I will...)
9. When working on a task, there is order, purpose, and voluntary subordination of the Son and Spirit to the Father. (No power play over "my rights.")	9. Likely to manipulate with anger, tears, threats to have own way. (May desperately cling to "my rights.")

Mrs. Peace states on page 30 that, "The Trinity is in a relationship in which three eternal persons (each being perfect in character and totally equal in being, power, and glory) reveal,know, and love each other tenderly and perfectly for the other's good within the context of an eternal commitment. When they decide to set and accomplish a goal, for the purpose of order and economy, God the Son and God the Spirit voluntarily subordinate themselves to God the Father in order to function according to their perfect plans. As they work together, they are totally unified in desire, thought and action until the goal's completion. Thus, they are a plurality within a unity."

This is the pattern for relationships that husbands and wives should be striving by God's grace to follow.

The Trinity shows us perfect love, humility and submission. May I challenge us all this week todwell on this list of characteristics. We look at the characteristics of fallen man and many timessee the pattern of disharmony that we are guilty of. Read the list carefully. We see self as theunderlying cause. "I will do my own thing. I will protect my feeling." Christ died to give us Hislife. We are to be daily putting off the old fallen man and putting on the new man. We are todevelop the characteristics of God in our life. Let us seek to turn from and abhor those selfseeking ways and strive to develop Godliness in our lives.

This week's lesson focused on the perfect unity of the Trinity. Next week we will see "What, However, Is God's Norm For Mankind Within Relationships?"

Taken from "The Excellent Wife" by Martha Peace, pp 27-32.Copyright 1999, Focus Publishing, Bemidji, Minnesota. Used with permission for the purposes of this devotional series only. May not be reproduced or forwarded without the express consent of the publisher.