The Christian Husband
The Bible tells a wife to submit to her husband in 1 Peter 3. Coming from a generation that regularly celebrates Girl Power (thank you, Spice Girls) this is a hard bit of scripture to swallow.
I have questioned many Christian women about this, why on earth would a woman submit to a man. Why did God give us the crappy end of the marriage deal?
The wisest answer I ever received was from a high school English teacher. She reminded me about what else God says about marriage:
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her (Ephesians 5:25)
“Whenever I meet a man who loves me like Christ,” she answered, “I’ll have no problem submitting to him.”
I can work with that answer.
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!Category: Sunday Sermon 3 comments »
October 25th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
I feel the same way. 15 years into marriage I have to say that I get the give and take of what God wants us to provide and to take from marriage. His plan works quite well if we let it!
October 27th, 2009 at 9:32 am
It really does! Thanks for the comment, Ashley.
November 11th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
I have a tough time with this scripture. I’m not a Christian, but was raised one and have heard your English teacher lady’s argument before. Regardless, I don’t like it.
I will say this, however: LOVE is SUBMISSION. What bothers me about this passage is the wording. It implies that a man must love, and a woman must obey. But when we love like we say we do, enough to make promises of a lifetime together-we BOTH are promising to submit to each other, to make compromises, to aid in the happiness of our spouse. I promise to do things that he wants to sometimes even though it’s not my “thing”, and to enjoy it because he’s my husband and I want him to be happy.. And he promises the same. We submit our lives to each other, equally.