And you know what? I've always believed it. I believe that the Bible is 100% inspired by the word of God. Always have, always will.
BUT, I do earnestly believe that the Bible is something you study, rather than just read. It's one of the reasons why I enjoy the Anglican Catholic church so much because I have never got a better Biblical education anywhere else.
So what about this verse? We all know it. A lot of atheists love to use it as an example on how "Backwards" Christianity is. A lot of strict fundamentalists love to use this verse as a way to silence, and yes, control their wives.
So let's take a look at the verse in question.
" Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the savior of the body."
Eph. 5:22, 23.
Pretty straight forward. It's understandable that someone who may have very little Biblical education may see this as Wives being completely submissive in every aspect and has no say.
But, let's keep reading.
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.
So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.
For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church"
I find it very odd that this bit of scripture isn't quoted nearly as much as Wives submitting to their husbands.
So, what does it mean for a wife to submit to her husband?
The best way I explain it to people is, that my husband is the priest of our home. He's to lead us in worship to God and following the will of God in all things.
I remember listening to a Roman Catholic priest on the radio and he said he would hear complaints of married men saying there wives were not submitting to them. The priest flat out said
"She doesn't have to submit to you if you are not following God's will."
I'll give an example. As I mentioned in previous posts, when my husband told me he felt lead to the Anglican church, I was being hard headed and hard hearted. I didn't want to leave the Evangelical church that I had been attending for a few years and loved dearly. But after a while, I knew we could not go to two separate churches, and if this was God's will, I needed to do it.
I submitted to my husband because he was following God's will. So we go to mass almost every Sunday mass together, side by side, and just as our priest leads the whole congregation in worship, my husband, as he sits/ kneels/ stands by my side, leads me in worship.
In Every other aspect, we are equals. I've we need to spend money on something, we discuss it with the other. We are mapping out our future as a team. There is no Dictatorship in our marriage. If one day he started walking around with an iron fist, I would remove myself from the situation till he got his act together. And our priest and his family would ask him why is he being an idiot.
But I know my husband would never do that, because he loves me deeply and he knows what his role as a husband is. Remember the rest of the verse?
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;"
He is to love me as Christ loved the church. So what did Christ do for his church?
HE DIED for his church! I honestly can't think of a more pronounced example of submission in history?
Christ loves his church. There is a reason the church is called the Bride of Christ. Christ and his Bride, is a wonderful example of a Husband's treatment to his wife. Orthodoxy teaches this. Husbands, treat your wives as precious gifts from God. Protect them and lead them in the Lord. Wives, cherish your husbands, and follow him, because he is following Christ.
I don't see this view as a dictatorship at all. I've seen dictatorship. Go to a real strict IFB church. Or one of those "everyone is going to hell except us". You'll see it for sure.
I see nothing wrong with my husband being the priest of our home. We are equals, but we are also different. Orthodoxy and Traditional Anglicanism acknowledges the different roles of men and women. But the different roles have nothing to do with superiority vs. inferiority.
Because God sees no one more superior than over the other in his children.
The Lord be with you.
