Today's sermon (given by our soon to be married assistant pastor) really struck a cord in me. It was based on Proverbs 31 and how we as a church should have the characteristics of the proverbs 31 wife. As I have meditated on his message today and how marriage is a example of the church's relationship to Christ, I had the verse in Ephesians 5:25-28 come to mind. This particular verse speaks of the character of Christ toward the church and says that husbands should do the same for their wives here on earth. "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself." I have often came to this verse and studied it over the past year. Wanting to learn to be biblically submissive to my husband, and discussing this with him I have often wondered if he is held accountable for my actions. Not responsible for them, I am, but once married does the man become partly accountable for what his wife does or does not do? This line of thought comes from where God asks Adam why the forbidden fruit was eaten, even though it was Eve who actually began the whole sorry mess. The requirements for leadership in the church is that the man be able to rule his own household. The hirearchy that is set up in the bible is God, Christ, man, then wife. 1 Corinthians 11: 3 "But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God." So the question that has been raised in my mind is...is my husband accountable for holding me up to Christ without spot or wrinkle or without blemish. I have heard people talk of how the husband is to give himself for his wife as Christ gave himself for the church, but the second part of the verse isn't addressed. That Christ cleansed the church. Why would that be placed in a passage where it is addressing how husbands and wives relationships should be. For me as a wife I do not believe that it absolves me of responsibility for my actions, it does make me wonder if my husband is held accountable for my actions by God then is there anything that I have done that the Lord would ask him, why was this allowed? I know that this post is really stomping all over feminisim and womens rights, but I never was a big fan of all of that, so that doesn't really bother me. My goal is to please God and I don't want to do something that will require my husband to have to explain why it happened under his watch. I know that this line of thinking is pretty much alien in this day and age but so is most of what you find in the bible. This is going to require more prayer and study on my part, there are many things in my walk with the Lord that I could do better in and I do not want my husband to have to answer for my failings.
While studying this I found this link that discusses this some, here it is for those who want a more educated look at this subject. http://www.carm.org/questions/about-doctrine/what-does-it-mean-when-bible-says-man-head-woman
While studying this I found this link that discusses this some, here it is for those who want a more educated look at this subject. http://www.carm.org/questions/about-doctrine/what-does-it-mean-when-bible-says-man-head-woman
https://strivetoenter.com/wim/2010/03/21/eve-usurped-adam-authority/ http://newlife.id.au/equality-and-gender-issues/the-consensus-and-context-of-1-timothy-212/
ReplyDeleteYou are right in that the husband is accountable for his wife. It's not you who makes him accountable for your failings, but rather it's the other way round, that if you do fall, he is accountable for that. Reason why is because being the head is not to be served, but to serve. And if he was serving well, washing with the water of God's word, encouraging, building up, the wife would be established. The head is not for show but servanthood. Likewise when Eve ate the fruit. It wasn't that she was accountable for Adam's failure, but Adam who was accountable for Eve's failure. He was right there when satan deceived her. Read the bible, he wss with eve, but said nothing. Remained silent, and instead of rebuking the snake allowed Eve to be misled.
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