Now on to 1 Peter 2, which begins with “therefore” so we need to see what the “therefore” is there for.

It begins in 1:22 which basically states that we, if we obey God, are purified. That is a common Bible theme. Of course the blood purifies us, but look at verse 22. It says they obeyed to the point of having sincere love for the brethren.

Lots of obeying going on, there, and probably most folks think of the sugary, sparkly definition of love, but really the definition is in 1 Corinthians 13. If we go there, we see love as actions, not feelings. No matter our feelings, if we obey about making loving actions happen, then we are loving.

(Who, among us moms, has not rocked a feverish baby, all the while frowning and gagging because of some stomach bug, yet giving of self for love, in spite of repulsion?)

If you have read Corrie tenBoom’s The Hiding Place, which I absolutely recommend, then you know good feelings come after obedience.

He never gives us the reward before we do what He says, and the good feelings, coming after obedience, are the reward.

He will give us the strength to obey, though, once we reach out to do the obeying. It flows as we obey, not before.

It is a thing of “trust and obey/ for there’s no other way/ to be happy in Jesus/ but to trust and obey.” If we already agree to the thing in the first place, we are not being really obeying.

If we already agree to the thing, we are just doing something that seems right to us. Sometimes it’s almost as if we are giving God permission to require it.

And we should bless Him for everything, true, but we should not require understanding in order to obey. Obedience should just flow from a grateful heart that knows it has been rescued, rescued by Someone Who had the right to destroy us instead, but did not.

Also, if we only obey when we think God is right, we are never obeying, not really; we are just doing what is right in our own eyes. We put ourselves in charge. We are our own God. This is so important, Katey, and is not easy for you to see, but it is truth, much-needed truth.

That said, your closest brother you have to love is your husband. He is not easy for you to love (I am talking about 1 Corinthians 13, not about the bed or the mushy feelings.) And he is your most difficult one to love because he is your husband.

I think you would have trouble with any husband because you are a typical woman. We each, every one of us, have trouble with our own husband. That’s just life for women, after The Fall. It is because your desire is to master him, but he, instead, is to rule you. God said. It is man’s commission to have authority and woman’s curse to resent it.

But there is deliverance in Jesus.

The only two possible solutions we could imagine to such resentment to such requirements would be that:

1. We would overcome it because we wanted to stay together, didn’t believe in divorce, etc., or
2. We would part.

Most married people divorce when so confused.

Most of the rest just muddle along in their troubles until they die.

A few, a very few, (as in, “narrow is the way”) deal with difficulties in a Godly way.

And that explains all the exhortations written especially for women, which are several in the Word, but always say the same things.

They say we should go the narrow way.

Part 4.