Change Movement Sermons Series

PARABLE OF THE UNHAPPY HUSBAND

When Jim married Betty he thought she was the sweetest girl in all the world.  Through the eyes of love, all she was and all she did was beautiful.

But after a few years Jim's love began to wane.  He began to see flaws in Betty he had not seen before.  There were those extra pounds, strands of gray sprinkled in her hair, and that mole on her cheek.  Her hair style was not very attractive and her taste in clothing left much to be desired.  Her cooking was mediocre and her housekeeping no better.  It eventually reached the point that nothing Betty did pleased him.  Other women were much more appealing, much better suited to be wives.

Jim had two choices.  He could make a clean break and leave Betty or he could stay and in his misery devote himself to criticizing her alleged shortcomings.  Maybe he could force her into becoming like other women he admired. Jim wrestled with his choices.  To leave would be embarrassing.  What would family and friends say?  It would cost him a bundle!  So he elected to stay.  In his misery he devoted himself to criticizing poor Betty's every move.  He told his friends, neighbors and coworkers what a sorry wife she was.  The more he put her down, the better he felt about himself.  How could a man of his qualities and attainments have gotten saddled with such a poor wife?

Does this story sound vaguely familiar? Jim is a type of disaffected preachers who work among churches of Christ.  They have become infatuated with the denominational churches they see about them.  Betty represents the Lord's church.  Like Jim, those unhappy preachers won't leave the church, so they dedicated themselves to belittling and badgering her hoping to change her so she will be like those denominational churches they so admire.  They are as sorry preachers as Jim is husband, unworthy of the churches that employ them.