Punching your wife

Ray Rice, an NFL football player, punches his wife and knocks her unconscious. Fortunately he didn't kill her. The league's response? A two game suspension.

One of the finest second basemen to every play the game, Chuck Knoblauch, is arrested for assaulting his second wife. His first wife left him after he assaulted her. Trend? The Minnesota Twins have decided to suspend his induction into their Hall-of-Fame.

Good call.

I'm here not to argue Roger Godell's impotent suspension of Rice or the Twins forestalling Knoblauch's entrance into their hall-of-fame but to address when a man should strike his bride. NEVER!

For this, there is no excuse.

I'd like to think that Knoblauch and Rice are aberrations, and perhaps they are. If it happens in the white hot spotlight of super-stardom, then it happens on Main Street, USA. It happens in our neighborhood and very likely happens in our church.

Husband, if this is something you have ever done or feel yourself moving toward, get help now! If you call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ this is nowhere in God's playbook for being a human being much less a husband. Loving your wife as Christ loved the church will never leave her black and blue.

Men, for the most part, are stronger than women. Few wives could whip their husbands in a boxing match, but that's not the point. A man's emotions must be within his control. If they are unbridled, sin is nipping at his heels. If we permit anger to simmer and stew without dealing with the relational issues between our brides and us, the kettle will boil over, and like so many sins, become something we never intended and never desired.

To let our anger and frustrations get so past our restraint that we strike, grab, or--dare I say--scream at our wives, we have sinned grievously.

To know of a family in the church where the husband has abused his wife is to abet a criminal. Such a man must be confronted.

If you are such a man, get help. Yesterday.

Chuck Knoblauch was one of my favorite players for the Twins. Today, I have no pity for the man. Abusing one bride was bad enough. A second, beyond human. It will be a sad day if the Minnesota Twins induct him into their Hall of Fame. And if Ray Rice sees the grid iron again except through a television screen, the NFL pays lip-service to policing its own.

Husband, nothing your wife will ever say or do will warrant your clenched fist. Repent. Confess. Seek help, before you've gone too far.