“The Extra Mile.” (Matt 5:41)
Do more than just enough, your efforts to go the extra mile can open the door to change a life, win a soul and change a home.
The extra mile in the home is in many ways where the rubber hits the road when living a life that goes the extra mile because in the home we don’t have an earthly audience watching and saying what a “kind considerate husband” or “your children are so well behaved” or “what dutiful wife you have got.”
A grumpy husband or frazzled wife can suddenly become sweetness and light when someone knocks on the door.
Sadly in many Christian homes when their front door closes their Christian values are left on the door step and conflict ensues, it not necessarily a verbal or physical conflict although this does happen in Christian homes. The conflict of the home is often a spiritual battle between selfishness and sacrifice. The extra mile is clearly about sacrifice, selfishness on the other hand is opposed to going the extra mile. Jesus referred to this battle as the spirit being willing but the flesh being weak Matt 26:41.
Just a few reasons Why many don’t go the Extra Mile in the Home
1. A cultural reason why many men don’t go the extra mile in the home is “an Englishman’s home is his castle” so this makes him the “King of the Castle” but there is not mention of any Queen! This idiom suggests that no one can tell a man what to do in his own home. Therefore an Englishman in his castle expected to be served rather than serve.
We have all been saved to serve even in the home, it may mean hovering, ironing, cleaning, cooking, and picking up your wife’s smelly socks.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
1 Peter 3:7 Likewise, husbands, live with your wives in an understanding way, showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel, since they are heirs with you of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered.
Colossians 3:19 Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.
Ephesians 5:28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.
2. A twisted biblical reason many men don’t go the extra mile in the home is the idea “male bread winner and female home maker.” 1 Timothy 5:8, 14, Titus 2:4-5 These verses are not commandments nor are they restrictive of women working outside the home.
The idea ‘women do house work and men do real work’ has resulted in men expecting dinner on the table when they comes in and whatever other pleasures they demand, after all men have worked all day and the women have just sat at home waiting for hunter to return.
God said to both Adam and Eve they both should rule and have dominium over the earth. Gen 1:27ff.
The Proverbs 31 wife like Lydia were business women Acts 16:14.
Economic necessities often means both partners need to work, however, because the idea of “male bread winner and female home maker” still dominates thinking some men come home to be the King of the castle.
Perhaps Christian men who want to be the King of the Castle need to treat the other people in the house as their Queen and children as Princes and Princesses.
Fathers Ephesians 6:4 Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.
Better still make Jesus the head of the house hold and treat each other according the example he gave us, as one who came to serve and not be served and laying down his life his bride the church Mark 10:45, 1John 3:16.
3. Another twisted Biblical reason some people don’t go the extra mile is teaching on; Submission (1 Cor 11:3-16, Eph. 5:22, 24; Col. 3:18; Tit. 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1, 5). Which has been abused and used to dominate and control and to claim male spiritual leadership over women. Spiritual submission is not above giving someone authority over you it about receiving the life giving blessing that comes from Christ as the Head of His Church. If the outcome of your submission is not blessing then you are living under the curse of the fall. Before the fall in Genesis 3, Adam was Eve’s source of life after the fall he became her dominator/ruler.
4. A further reason some women, some men and some children don’t go the extra mile in the home is they are Just plain lazy.
Go the extra mile in the Home
Can I encourage you to go the extra mile in the home In What you do and In What you say;
Serve and support one another, don’t wait until you are asked or told open your eyes of the TV, put the remote control down, get off the sofa, make the effort and do what needs to be done, no such thing as women’s work and men’s work.
Can I encourage you not to take the people in you home for granted but treat them with the same honour and respect you would have for the stranger that helps you.
I have noticed how polite with “please” and “thank you” many people are to service providers, yet in the home they are tried and grumpy, grunting instead of thank you making demands without please.
Can I encourage you to encourage and speak positively about the people in your home and to stop moaning, complaining, shouting and nagging.
Christ is the head of this house,
The unseen guest at every meal,
The silent listener to every conversation.
