Stop Treating Her How You Want To Be Treated
“Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you. This is the essence of all that is taught in the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 7:12, NLT)
Whoa, isn’t my title saying to go against what the Bible says? You may think that you love your wife like the Bible says to but then again, you may be way off. You might look at the verse, “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you” and say “See I told you the Bible contradicts your statement!” But hear me out.
Let me illustrate. To follow usual interpretation of the Matthew passage we should treat others like we want to be treated so here I go: I am giving my wife season tickets to our local hockey team!! What a gift, right? She would be about as impressed as I would be if I was watching opera! I hate opera.
Treating her exactly the way that I would like to be treated is not the answer. Don’t treat her like you want to be treated. “Do unto others whatever you would like them to do to you” means we want people to discover our interests and treat us with those interests in mind. So discover what your wife likes and treat her with those in mind.
Stop treating your wife like you want to be treated, instead discover her interests (see Observe: You Are Better Than Your Wife) and treat her like she wants to be treated. Try it this week let me know how she responds.
God, Show me how to treat my wife in a way that tells her how much I value her. Help me to honor her in my words and actions and lead our family in a way that honors You. Amen
Question: Why does the way we treat others matter so much to God?
Read more on how to honor your wife from Dr. Charles Stanley
I don’t really think its regarding material gifts, but of becoming Christ Like. I may be wrong, but it may be an attitude adjustment type statement to make us walk more in the spirit, with actions of praise, honor and love. I want to treat others (including my spouce) in this way, so that I may be treated in the same way. So my spirit and soul may be edified through grace. Grace is a powerful thing, by grace we were given an opportunity to become the children of God. So with this grace we also become Christ-Like, and in doing so, we now want to be Christ-like to other so they can in turn be Christ-like to us. It further gives us the ability to minister to those in need and through our actions, they see Christ in us and hopefully want more of the same. Planting a seed of compassion for mankind will hopefully end in salvation for the unsaved and dicipleship, to further the Kingdom of God….Run the race, with Jesus!