Respect

I was recently listening to Christian radio while driving around town. This is an unusual occurrence because G prefers and demands Country music to be playing most of the time we are in the car. On this particular day I had dropped G off for therapy and was milling around town wasting time, gas, and a little money (I love thrift store finds). I am in a great mood listening to great music when the radio personality begins a debate on whether or not one of the other men at the station should get a new iphone for himself and give his old one to his wife or give his wife the new one and keep the old one himself.

I know that this guy is targeting a much younger audience than me and that he discusses these issues and takes the stand he does to appeal to the younger crowd. That I get. He is trying to reach his audience. At least I hope that is his intent. My position is that his opinions are not biblical in the least way. The only difference between his in your face humor and that you might see on Comedy Central is that he doesn't use profanity to deliver his abusive jokes. His target audience are people the age of my oldest son.  He is broadcasting his opinions whether real or exaggerated to young people whose attitudes are being shaped and formed more now than at any other time in their lives.

Some of his comments made me think that I had crossed into some sort of time warp until I realized that radio and automobiles were not invented in the 18th century. One of his statements was, "women are like children, they need boundaries." He repeated over and over how this man's wife didn't deserve or need the phone and that he should give his old phone to her and keep the new phone for himself.

Respect, or a lack of respect, is a huge issue facing our society. We live in a "me" focused world. Our young people need Godly influences that model love and respect for others--especially their mates. Jesus spent His entire life focused on giving to and serving others. He willingly laid down His life so that we might be reconciled to God. He ministered to the outcasts in society with love and grace. He always showed total respect to those around Him.

In the book of Ephesians, Paul lays out the Biblical roles of a husband and wife. If couples love each other and live out these guidelines they will have a perfect marriage, a marriage based on love and respect. So, to this radio personality I say humor at the expense of someone else is not humor at all. It is abuse. And to answer the question of what the man should do about the iphone I will let you read what Paul had to say about the marriage relationship and decide for yourself.

Ephesians  21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.[b] 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.

31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”[c] 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.