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How to Be a Puritan Husband

In the second place, we must be taught to understand. Where is God? Of course, God is everywhere. This means that God-centeredness in worship leads directly to a clear vision of the world around us. Nothing is neutral, nothing is irrelevant and the entire world is charged with meaning. God-centeredness does not displace the world—rather, it illuminates the entire world.

And third, we should be taught to apply. Faith without works is dead. The world is God’s, but sin has marred the creation. As we are rebuilt in Christ, a central part of our task is to rebuild what we touch. As the blues song put it, the world is round, but it still is crooked. That crookedness is to be put straight.

In summary, a biblical husband—a Puritan husband—hears the gospel, worships God faithfully, studies the Word and obeys.

A Full Husbandry

Such obedience leads directly to the doctrine of vocation, which is particularly important in a man’s calling. What does it mean for a Christian husband to work in the world?

First, his work has a point. Theology orients a man in his work. He knows that God has called him to it. This eliminates the erroneous secular/sacred distinction with regard to work. Second, we are liberated to work with a will. Different callings under Christ are never a reproach. Laziness in any calling is. Puritans turned the world upside down with their work ethic. The unbelieving world has rarely seen anything like it, but we trust that the time is coming when they will see it again. Third, godly work was oriented to the home, and not to the monastery. The exaltation of celibacy was a Roman trait. The exaltation of marriage was very much a Puritan trait, and they placed marriage right at the center of their vocational calling.

The result was a full husbandry. Husbands are to serve their households through provision and protection. That provision is both spiritual and physical. The protection is both physical and spiritual—and all of it is covenantal. The results also included erotic devotion. Before the Puritans the notion was widespread that purity and chastity meant avoiding the marriage bed, which then meant that the place where erotic devotion came out was in the adulterous notions of courtly love. We must thank the Puritans for bringing purity, marriage and romantic dedication all together. That particular fusion was truly remarkable. This development also gave us another important gift, which was the relevance of men. It has been a long time since the world has seen a true, biblical, masculine confidence.