The bible confronts a husband and wife with the lifelong challenge of patterning their relationship after the relationship between Jesus and the church. Certain assumptions follow.
Continue reading HOW IS MARRIAGE LIKE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CHRIST AND THE CHURCH?
The principle articulated in the fifth commandment is to honor and respect parents, not to obey them blindly when their advice contravenes some established principle of faith and conduct. The burden of proof should fall on children who choose to avoid parent’s directives. In no case is disrespect warranted.
Continue reading SHOULD CHILDREN OBEY PARENTS, EVEN WHEN PARENTS ARE WRONG?
Paul was no chauvinist. He taught the spiritual equality of women and men (Gen 3:28) and wrote eloquently about husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church-sacrificially and unconditionally (Ephesians 5:25-33). But to a church in a corrupt culture where marriages were in disarray, the brave Paul argued that submission was essential for any institution-government, church, or family. Without authority, chaos reigns. Continue reading WHY DID PAUL SPEAK SO MUCH ABOUT WIVES SUBMITTING TO THEIR HUSBANDS?
Many a marriage has fizzled because both husband and wife latch onto the nation of submission, and both are destroyed by it. The husband may like the feeling of dominance, but he discovers too late he no longer has any emotional tie with his wife. Sometimes, tragically, the husband’s sense of dominance becomes perverted and hurtful. Sometimes a wife submits as a survival strategy, fails to grow as a person, loses her love for the man, questions her value as a believer, and settles into a half-life of emotional and spiritual solitude. But submission is meant to help a marriage, not hurt it. So how does it work? Continue reading IF A WIFE IS TO SUBMIT TO HER HUSBAND, HOW MUCH? IN WHAT AREAS? AT WHAT COST?