The health and wholeness of our human relationships find their source in the wholeness of our relationship with the Lord through Jesus. I might add that strength, wisdom, and love for others are fueled by the vitality of our life in the Lord. His work on our behalf enables us to grow in our relationships not only with our God, but also with others, especially our wives and children (Timothy Z. Witmer, The Shepherd Leader at Home, 19).

As for the order and decree of bishops superior to that of elders, that there is no divine ordinance nor institution for it, it is not only held by Calvin, Beza, Bucer, Martyr, Sadeel, Luther, Chemnitz, Gerhard, Balduin, the Magdeburgians, Musculus, Piscator, Hemmingius, Zanchius, Polanus, Junius, Paraeus, Fenner, Danaeus, Morney, Whittaker, Willet, Perkins, Cartwright, the Professors of Leyden, and the far greatest part of writers in reformed churches, but also by Jerome, who, upon Titus 1, and in his epistle to Evagrius, speaks so plainly, that the Archbishop of Spalato is driven to say, “in this sense we are abandoning Jerome, and we are not in agreement with him in these pronouncements”; also by Ambrose on 1 Tim. 3; Augustine in his Book of Questions out of both Testaments, Quest. 101; Chrysostom on 1 Tim. 3; Isidore (dist. 21, cap. 1); the Canon Law (dist. 93, cap. 24; dist. 95, cap. 5); Lombard (lib. 4, dist. 24). And after him, by many schoolmen, such as Aquinas, Alensis, Albert, Bonadventura, Richardus, and Dominic de Soto, all mentioned by the Archbishop of Spalato. Gerhard cites for the same judgment, Anselm, Sedulius, Primasius, Theophlact, Oecumenius, the Council of Basil, Arelatensis, Joh. Parisiensis, Erasmus, Medina, and Cassander, all which authors have grounded that which they say upon Scripture; for besides that Scripture makes no difference of order and degree between bishops and elders, it shows also that they are one and the same order. For in Ephesus and Crete, they who were made elders were likewise made bishops (Acts 20:17, 28; Titus 1:5, 7). And the apostle divides the whole ministry in the church of Philippi into two orders, bishops and deacons, but says nothing of a third order (1 Tim. 3). Wherefore it is manifest, that beside those two orders of elders and deacons, there is no other ecclesiastical order which has any divine institution, or necessary use in the church; and princes should do well to apply their power and authority to the extirpation and rooting out of popes, cardinals, patriarchs, primates, archbishops, bishops, suffragans, abbots, deans, vice-deans, priors, archdeacons, subdeacons, abbots, chancellors, chantors, subchantors, exorcists, monks, eremites, acolytes, and all the rabble of popish orders, which undo the church, and work mischief in the earth that can be either soon seen or shortly told (George Gillespie, A Dispute Against the English Popish Ceremonies, 313-315).

Secondly, That the will of God to which our obedience is required is the revealed will of God contained in his word; whose compliance with his decree is such, that hence we learn three things tending to the execution of it:

First, That it is the condition of the word of God, and the dispensation thereof, instantly to persuade to faith and obedience.

Secondly, That it is our duty by all means to aspire to the performance of all things by it enjoined, and our fault if we do not.

Thirdly, That God by these means will accomplish his eternal decree of saving his elect; and that he willeth the salvation of others, inasmuch as he calleth them unto the performance of the condition thereof.

Now, our obedience is so to be regulated by this revealed will of God, that we may sin either by omission against its precepts or commission against its prohibitions; although by our so omitting or committing of anything the secret will or purpose of God be fulfilled. Had Abraham disobeyed God’s precept, when he was commanded to sacrifice his son Isaac, though God’s will had been accomplished thereby, who never intended it, yet Abraham had grievously sinned against the revealed will of God, the rule of his duty. The holiness of our actions consisteth in a conformity unto His precepts, and not unto His purposes. On this ground Gregory affirmeth, “That many fulfil the will of God” (that is, his intentions) “when they think to change it” (by transgressing his precepts); “and by resisting imprudently, obey God’s purpose.”

And to show how merely we in our actions are tied to this rule of our duty, St Augustine shows how a man may do good in a thing cross to God’s secret will, and evil in that which complieth with it, which he illustrates by the example of a sick parent having two children, the one wicked, who desires his father’s death, the other godly, and he prays for his life. But the will of God is he [the father] shall die, agreeably to the desire of the wicked child; and yet it is the other who hath performed his duty, and done what is pleasing unto God.  (Works of John Owen, Vol. 10, 48-49).