THE IDEAL CHRISTIAN HOME
Jesus honoured the home. His birthplace was mean (Luke 2:7) so far as
external things go. The house and the city, where His parents lived,
showed plainly the poor estate of the family which, while it was of
noble lineage, was greatly reduced in circumstances. Jesus Himself
learned and practiced the trade of a carpenter. In living in this home
at Nazareth for thirty years of His life Jesus showed that it was
possible under hard outward conditions to live a noble life and to
cultivate and practice those virtues and qualities which were
afterwards so greatly to bless the whole world.
Duties of Husbands and Wives.--The beginning of every Christian home
is in a supreme affection between two, a man and a woman. "For this
cause," Christ said, "shall a man leave his father and mother, and
cleave to his wife; and they twain shall be one flesh, so that they
are no more twain but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder" (Mark 10:7-9). He honoured and
sanctioned the marriage relation by His presence at the marriage in
Cana (John 2:1-11). In the first century divorce was very common;
Hillel, the Jewish teacher, held "that the bond was so loose and
flexible that if a wife burnt her husband's food while cooking it, he
was justified in procuring a writ of divorcement from her.
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