“And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, “She is my sister.” Gen 20:2

For those of you who are married, what are some of the words and concepts that stir in your mind when you hear the words “wife” or “husband”? When I say that I have a wife or call Betty “my wife,” many things come to mind, for there are myriad issues associated with the term “wife.” I think of the children, finances, the home, the emotional, physical, and mental aspects of our relationship, future and past events, good and bad, commitment, oneness, pains and joys, holidays, babies, ultimate goals, and more. After all, she is my wife.

There is much written on the relationship of husband and wife. However, I want to investigate an overlooked aspect of marriage, that of brother and sister in Christ. This is a greater relationship than marriage. In heaven there will be no marriage, for the earthly relationship of marriage will end on earth. “For when they rise from the dead, they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.” (Mark 12:25)

When I look at my wife and call her sister, everything changes. Just as the word “wife” brings with it a multitude of feelings, situations, and actions, so does the word “sister.” She is my sister in Christ; I am her brother in Christ. Those two words, “sister and brother,” move us to a different realm with completely different issues and goals. Once I call her “sister,” I acknowledge that she is not my own; she has a Father and is a member of a family. As my sister we have a goal that goes above and beyond that of a married couple. God is the goal and the desire of our hearts; we must encourage each other in Him. Who did what and said what is not of ultimate importance; He is. All of the little annoyances of the day don’t matter. Earthly mistakes are not the issue. Security is not in finances or who was wisest with the money. Together, He is our goal. When offended, we recognize that we deserve to be offended until we cannot be offended, for of what use will we be in the kingdom if we still get offended? I can’t judge my sister, for, ”Who are you to judge the servant of another? To his own master he stands or falls; and stand he will, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” (Rom. 14:4)

There is something higher than marriage for a couple, there is another dimension, and there is a better place from which to relate. Sometime today, turn to your wife and call her “Sister,” or to your husband and say “Brother.” For too long we have only seen our mates as wife or husband, and there is more.

“And as for you, you meant evil against me, {but} God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.”
Gen 50:20

I really dread bringing up my bible college days, those days when we sat around and discussed how ignorant congregations were, how they didn’t do what they knew was right, and how they could be so stupid. I can’t stand those memories primarily because all my judgments befell me.

It is so easy to stand on the work of others, carnal or spiritual, and make judgments. For years I actually believed that my thinking was my thinking, that I owed no one. I would read the anti-nicean fathers and think, “How could they believe that?” It was easy to look back through history and assess what was right or wrong with those believers.

Well, I am getting older and see that I stand on their shoulders, that what many did, in the light of what they had, has brought me into a greater light. I am not independent of them. I am not smarter. I was born in this age, with this education, all for a time to come. It is easy to look at some doctrine that a Luther or Calvin believed and judge them. However, I stand in my reality and judge them in theirs.

My point is twofold. First, all that the believers did before me, good and bad, has helped to make me what I am. I am indebted to them and not as independent as I would like to think. Second, I should never despise the work of God, which can be accomplished through the good or the bad in a saint.

Many are angry over the bondage that they lived under in legalism. They despise those that taught it to them, manipulated and controlled them through it. Don’t! Their teaching didn’t bring you into bondage. Their teaching revealed that you had a righteousness of your own. Only a self-righteous person would attempt such a journey with such a teacher. It’s your fault you were in bondage. You went along with it. God permitted it because He knew that you needed it! It was being in bondage that made you long for freedom. It was bondage that makes your freedom today so precious.

Therefore, bless those that used you, abused you, and brought you under bondage. God used them to make you long for a contrast.

“For this reason I have often been hindered from coming to you.” Rom 15:22

God will often give the believer a call to accomplish something, and then close every door to make the fulfillment impossible. Why? Because with the call comes a provision.

The same One who gives the call must also accomplish it. However, the flesh of man will take the call and not the provision. The flesh will look for fulfillment in self power, and if completion is possible, sink into glory, kingdoms, pride, strength, and righteousness.

The call and the provision are one. The problem is that we don’t see them as one. Therefore, immediately after the call, all attempts to fulfill it must fail. You need not look far for an example. Joseph, after the call to be the leader of his family, actually thought it a turn of bad luck to end up in a pit. Then, good luck to be taken out of the pit. Then, good luck to be head of a house and then another turn of bad luck when he ended up in prison. In the end, though, he saw it was God who brought Him out. It was all God. The call and the provision were one. He completed the call with the provision and took no glory.

This is to be the end result of a perfect call of God. A call and provision. When you get a call, don’t think that is all of it. Listen and wait for the provision. Don’t try to do the thing on your own. You will only end up in a pit.

I was told of a man who was an idol maker. One day he thought to himself, “I will cut the head off one of the idols and see if anything happens to me.” Nothing happened. Next he cut off a hand and nothing bad happened. In the end he cut the idol in two and nothing happened. He then realized that something made with hands could not be a god. This revelation led him on a journey that found him at the feet of Jesus.

I was told by one missionary that people can be born again through a clear conscience without having to hear the name of Jesus. I didn’t believe it. Truth is where fact and faith meet. He couldn’t produce a single person to say that God gave him a new life, and then he later discovered that the new life was Jesus. However, though an unbeliever in a remote area cannot be born again, he could have a conversion in his thinking, as did the idol maker. Revelation can lead someone to Jesus.