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House and home are often used interchangeably in everyday conversation. A million dollar house may be called a “beautiful home,” when actually it is full of jealousy, hatred, strife, and unhappiness. It is really only a beautiful house. Contrariwise, a very modest house may truly be a beautiful home because within its walls there is love, respect, and happiness. A house is where a family lives. A home is how a family lives.
A home begins with a man and a woman who become husband and wife. Therefore, what any home is or is not rests completely on their shoulders. The elements that constitute an ideal home are both recognizable and within our grasp. The Bible is the sourcebook of the ingredients of an ideal home.
The most important feature of a good house is a solid foundation. It really matters not how large, expensive, elaborate, or expansive the superstructure is, if the foundation is not solid. A weak foundation will crack and fail and cause ruin to the house that rests on it.
The same is true of a home. The reason so many homes are being broken and destroyed is because the foundation upon which they were built was flimsy, weak, and totally insufficient to carry the load placed upon it. The only foundation strong enough to build a strong home on is a spiritual foundation. This involves an earnest attempt on the part of both husband and wife to live according to the great life-principles of the Bible. Before this concept is rejected as being difficult or impossible in our modern world, we should consider how painful, crushing, and difficult it is to experience a broken home.
God is our Creator, and He knows just exactly how it is best for us to live. He knows our emotional, psychological, physical, and spiritual needs far better than we ourselves know them. He has provided for these needs to be supplied to us by giving us direction for our lives through His Word. The Bible is our manufacturer’s Instruction Manual. These instructions include not only general principles for good lives, but specific directions to both husbands and wives. If both partners in a marriage are faithful to what God teaches through His Word, they cannot be unfaithful or unloving to one another. Due to human weaknesses and individual differences, even the most devoted (to God and to one another) husband and wife will sometimes disagree, say things that they should not, act selfishly, etc. When these things occur in such a home, the spiritual foundation that reaches patience, longsuffering, kindness, humility, unselfishness, forgiveness, etc., provides stability and strength. However, when one or both partners reject such a spiritual foundation selfishness becomes the supreme standard of conduct, immorality may be winked at or even used as a tool of revenge and drunkenness may be used for an escape mechanism. All these and other carnal elements produce jealousy and strife that lead to hatred. Without a spiritual foundation, there is no way for a home to survive the storms that will beat against it. Such a home is either a hell on earth, or it ends in breaking up altogether. God is the originator of the husband/wife/home relationship. Only when a man and woman give themselves completely, both to one another and to God for life can they have the ultimate happiness God designed the home to provide.
[Note: I wrote this article for, and it was published in the “Bible Thoughts” Column for the Hood County News, Granbury, Texas, November 4, 1979.]
Attribution: From thescripturecache.com; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.
