Our families are the groundwork of our entire society. What the family will do, the society will eventually accept as normal. The family is the smallest organization in society, yet determines the ultimate strength of all other organizations in society.

The homosexual lifestyle did not even begin to be accepted until the family is pretty much destroyed. More than 50% of children are being raised in broken homes.

Read article from St. Louis Post-Dispatch, June 14, 1995 entitled Family Value: Study Ranks Careerists Lower.

I. Three organizations created by God: family, government, church.

A. Gen. 2:18 - God saw it was not good for the man to be alone.

1. God meant for procreation to be through marriage, and through marriage alone.

a. God created a man, then created a woman.

b. Genesis 1:28 – Adam needed a wife to help him fill the earth.

2. It is not that God saw this only in the Garden of Eden.

a. He saw it all along, for He knows all things.

b. Adam must see that everything God does is good, therefore, God let him be without a help meet for a while.

c. Adam will not only see that everything God does is good, he will also see that God will provide everything he needs or will ever need.

d. This fact makes the rebellion in Gen. 3 all the worse.

3. If God decided this, it must be very good!

B. I Tim. 5:14 - Paul declared it was good for young widows and young women to marry, bear children, and guide the house for this was good for them and God.

1. If it is good for young widows to go on with their life, by marrying, after losing a husband to death, it is also good for young single women to marry.

2. If it is good for young women to marry, it must also be good for young men to marry and bear the responsibility of a household.

II. The Role of Husband and Wife - Eph. 5:17-33.

A. The lesson in this place is concerning the role of church to Christ, not the husband and wife relationship.

1. Paul took the relationship of husband and wife, what everybody knew to be true, and used that to explain the relationship of the church to Christ.

2. This point is very often forgotten when this passage is interpreted.

B. In marriage, each partner supplies what God has given the other to need.

1. What God gives the husband to do, the wife needs.

2. What God gives the wife to do, the husband needs.

3. Both need companionship, which is pretty much forgotten in a marriage.

C. Wife - Only one thing to do; to be under the subjection of her husband, that she might be able to show how the church of Jesus Christ is under the subjection of her husband, Jesus Christ.

1. Subjection is not:

a. Brow-beat.

b. Slave.

c. Free worker.

2. Subjection is:

a. A Greek military term meaning "to arrange [troop divisions] in a military fashion under the command of a leader". In non-military use, it was "a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating, assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden".

b. To arrange under, to yield to the husband’s control.

D. Husband - Only one thing to do; to love his wife as his own flesh, to show that Christ loved the church and gave Himself for it.

1. Love is Agapao, which means a self-sacrificing love.

2. Do things for your wife and for her sake alone.

3. See the other passages in this chapter for more of a description.

E. Children - Only one thing to do; to love and honor their parents.

1. Not until you are 18, but all of your lives, even after they die.

2. There is a difference between honoring your parents, and obeying them.

3. You are commanded to obey your parents as long as you are living in their home, when you marry, you are to leave your father and mother and cleave unto your wife (spouse).

F. There is a gross lack of love in most homes today.

1. I think that if you have a happy home, you will find it very difficult to understand the hate that is felt in most homes today.

2. There is a putting up with each other, and a using each other for their own personal satisfaction, but very little love in most homes and families. Many dads and mothers are so busy working to make a living, they have forgotten the most important reason for working: each other and their children (in that order!). It seems very difficult in some families to express love as it really ought to be.

3. This is why many young people are separating from their families, joining gangs, using dope, and generally finding dissatisfaction with their lives. This is why there is so much teen suicide today, and why so many teens are seeking happiness in things their parents disapprove of.

III. Titus 2:1-8 - The older generation is supposed to teach the younger generation to do some things that are thought to be "natural".

A. May I remind you that a sign of the last days is mothers, dads and children that don't have "natural affection", II Tim. 3:3. (Without natural affection)

B. Rom. 1:26,27 - Men and women in the last days shall turn from the "natural" to that which is against "nature".

1. This is speaking of more than just the misuse of the body, but the underlying cause is the misuse of "natural" love that God has placed in all humans.

2. When there is no fear of God, there is nothing men will not do.

3. The desire to be loved also enters into the picture.

C. Rom. 1:30-32 - Disobedient to parents, without understanding; desiring that others also disobey.

IV. What I would like you to do.

A. Older people write what you believe the Bible means when it says older women ought to teach the younger women to love their husbands, their children, so forth. Titus 2:1-8. These are things you want the younger people to fully understand.

B. Younger people write what you would like to understand about being an adult, about having a husband or wife. Perhaps you could write something of your frustration (if you are frustrated) about growing up and trying to find what God wants you to do. I would remind you that if you had the best instruction in the entire world, you would still feel frustrated, left out, and wondering what you ought to do. It's a part of growing up!

C. If you don't know if you are an older person or a younger person, and there are some that are young people with young children, then write about both of the above.

V. The purpose is to help the next generation scripturally apply the Bible to their lives so they can be grown up, productive Christians for the cause of Christ.

A. So the next generation won't have to endure the problems of marrying the wrong person, divorce, adulteries, so forth.

B. One woman (Frankie Chance) had three or four husbands.

1. She told me she "didn't know how to pick 'em."

2. Therefore, she concluded she didn't need another husband.

3. She did tried to teach her children "how to pick 'em."