THE WEEK OF TRINITY XX - TUESDAY

LESSON: 1 TIMOTHY 4:1‒15

He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord. Proverbs 18:22

Wherever the estate of marriage lives up to its name and you have what may be called a proper marriage with man and wife getting on well with each other, there is, first of all, true mutual trust and confidence on both sides.

Among other praise which Solomon bestows on a pious wife, he notes it as something especially praiseworthy that “the heart of her husband trusts in her” (Proverbs 31:11). He can rely on her, entrust his body and life, property and honor to her.

On the other hand, the wife’s heart is also attached to her husband; he is her greatest and most precious treasure on this earth. She knows that she can rely on him for honor, protection, and help in all her needs.

Such a united, perfectly mutual and constant trust of the heart is not to be found among other persons and estates as between a master and servant, a woman and her maid, not even between parents and children. For in all these cases, love is not equal in strength, not as completely mutual, and does not remain such a constant bond as it does in the estate of marriage ordained by God.

This has been God’s intention from the beginning, for He said after the creation of Eve, “Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh” (Genesis 2:24).

SL.XI.1749,6
AE. 79:213-223

PRAYER: Heavenly Father, already at the creation of the world You ordained the estate of marriage for man as one of his choicest and richest blessings. May all who are Your children and members of Your kingdom always regard this estate as something very precious and experience in it the true joy that you intended men to find in it, for Christ’s sake. Amen.