Nepaug Bible Church - http://www.nepaugchurch.org - Pastor's Adult Sunday School Notes - http://www.nepaugchurch.org/bb/bb20020421.htm

THE ROLES OF CHRISTIAN MEN AND WOMEN
Part V: The Roles Of Christian Marriages In The Angelic Conflict
  1. Introduction
    1. As Satan and his demons seek to oppose God's plan for man to rule the earth (Gen. 1:28-30), Satan seeks to destroy man (John 8:44), and this includes attacking the nurturing, wholesome institution of marriage.
    2. We thus view Scriptures presenting this fact, and reveal Scripture's teaching on countering Satan's effort.
  2. The Roles Of Christian Marriages In The Angelic Conflict.
    1. Satan tries to influence Christian husbands toward the following behaviors that can undermine a marriage:
      1. Satan will tempt a man to be selfish so his wife withholds physical intimacy; this in turn can leave them both open to commit adultery and wreck the marriage, Eph. 5:22-23 with 6:12-13; 1 Cor. 7:5.
      2. Satan may tempt a father to be inconsistent and insensitive to his children, producing their frustrated rebellion and thus adding stress to his marriage, Eph. 6:4, 12-13.
      3. Satan seeks to create conflict between a Christian man and his local church to alienate his home from Christian support to ruin it. Satan can do this by tempting him to be insubordinate to Church leaders (1 Pet. 5:5-8), getting him into Church leadership as a new convert and tempting him with pride and falling into spiritual defeat (1 Tim. 3:6) or having a bad reputation as a new believer in church leadership destroy his confidence (1 Tim. 3:7) all so as to make him drop out of Church permanently.
    2. Satan tries to influence Christian wives toward the following behaviors that attack their marriages:
      1. Satan tries to influence a wife to be insubordinate and emotionally unresponsive toward her husband, Eph. 5:22-33 with 6:12-13. This can lead to her withholding physical intimacy, resulting either spouse being more vulnerable to falling into adultery out of a lack of control of one's libido, 1 Corinthians 7:5.
      2. Satan can also try to tempt a wife to depart from homemaking as a priority to get her preoccupied with house-to-house gossip; this can stress a marriage as well, 1 Timothy 5:11-13; Titus 2:3-5.
      3. Satan can try to create conflict between a Christian wife and her local church in order to alienate her marriage from helpful supporters by influencing her to be insubordinate to her church leaders; that can lead to unnecessary conflict and broken rapport with church supporters (1 Tim. 2:9-15; Gen. 3:1-6).
    3. Satan tries to get either spouse to think and act with evil to afflict the partner and ruin their marriage: for unsaved spouses, everything from heeding mediums to demon possession is possible (Deut. 18:21-22; Mark 5:1-7), and for believers [who can not be demon possessed (1 John 5:18c)], a blend of unloving, depressed, restless, irreconcilable, cruel, immoral, unreliable, crude, untamed attitudes and actions are possible toward ruining spousal trust and rapport and harming the marriage, 2 Tim. 3:1-5a with 2:24-26.
    4. To overcome, the INDIVIDUAL spouse (even if the partner STAYS defeated!) does as follows:
      1. He believes in Christ as Savior from sin for salvation (if this has not yet happened) to become a member of Christ's kingdom and be released from the Satan's rule, cf. John 3:16 with Col. 1:12-14.
      2. He confesses any sins done after salvation, coming under the Holy Spirit's control, 1 Jn. 1:9; Gal. 5:16.
      3. Then, he is empowered by God's indwelling Holy Spirit to exhibit love, joy, peace, long-suffering under provocation (Trench, Syn. of the N.T., p. 196), a kindhearted attitude (Ibid., p. 233), moral excellence or wholesomeness (T.D.N.T., v. I, p. 18), faith, mild and gentle friendliness (T.D.N.T., v. VI, p. 646) and self-control, Gal. 5:22-23. In heeding the Spirit's influence, since the omnipotent God the Holy Spirit is greater than Satan and his demons (cf. 1 John 4:4 with Acts 5:3-4), the spouse will exhibit right attitudes and acts regardless what Satan tries to do to influence him or her the contrary!
      4. In keeping with these steps, one must "hide" in God's "armor" to stay resistant to Satan's influence, cf. Eph. 6:11-12. Along with "D, 1-3" above, this includes (a) using the spiritual gift God has given one to serve instead of branching off into one's own ideas of ministry (2 Tim. 1:6-7), (b) staying with the assignments given one in the church or job by proper Biblical authority and leading [as Satan is insubordinate to God (cf. Isa. 14:13-14) and seeks to augment godless insubordination to harm others] (Heb. 13:7, 17) (c) and staying in Scripture for divine guidance, 2 Timothy 3:13-4:2 with 2:24-26.
Lesson: Added to one's war with his own sin nature (Rom. 7:15-24) and the world's lures (1 John 2:15-16), Satan seeks to influence marriages to their destruction (Ephesians 5:22-33; 6:11-12).

Application: It is IMPERATIVE that every spouse use God's SPIRITUAL equipping for his marriage.