Vince Deagler

the last time i blogged i mentioned god has given a wonderful recipe for happy and healthy marriages. i’m afraid a couple things get in the way. the first is the terminology we encounter in some of our most important texts. for instance in ephesians 5:22-33, paul says wives are to submit to their husbands (we covered this last blog), and husbands are the head of the wife. as i mentioned last time, this terminology is way out of step with our politically correct culture that insists men are women are equal. now don’t get me wrong, i am not trying to say men and women are not positionally equal as human beings, as persons, or as followers of jesus as in the phrase “in christ”. but equality and sameness are very different issues as is positional equality and functional equality. men and women are different, a basic understanding of anatomy reveals this. but it doesn’t stop there. in addition to physical difference, there are mental, emotional, relational, spiritual, etc. differences. and who actually looks at reality and comes up with the lame idea that we are all functional equals. it is obvious to anyone with a pulse and brain activity that we all have different gifts, skill sets, interests, passions, that make us more suited to do some things than others. if we can get over the terminology, and the distraction it engenders, perhaps we could get to the actual meaning of what paul is saying and as a result to the happy/healthy marriages he is describing. a second thing that gets in the way is our hang up on power…authority. in fact we had a discussion on this very thing last sunday. i raised the question “does god have authority?” because the wife’s submission and the husbands headship is based in the relationship between christ and the church. now i’m am not trying to deny the authority of jesus. but i am trying to provoke our thinking in at least 2 areas. there may be more, but i haven’t got that far in my own understanding yet. first, it is quite clear that the way jesus functions as the head of the church is a very different idea of authority than in our modern culture. closely tied to this is the idea that although jesus does have authority in the church, i’m not sure this is what paul is focused on in ephesians by his statement christ is the head of the church as a model for the headship of a husband in the home. lets tackle these one at a time. it is obvious in the text and throughout scripture that jesus really does have a different view of authority. here he gives himself up to serve the needs of the church, so that the church can become all she should be in christ. when he trained the 12 he told them to not practice leadership as the gentiles who were harsh and dictatorial. instead they were to be servants. later he tells them plainly he is not calling them servants, but friends. so what i see is, although christ had authority, he did not use it as we often experience it in our modern society. so a husbands headship should not reflect our understanding of authority, it should reflect christs. as i mentioned last week, my relationship with christ is not based in obligation or duty. its based in love and my desire to communicate to him how much he means to me because i understand how he has loved me and all he has done for me. so a husband should follow christ down the path of service to his wife, not sit back and exercise “authority” over her. that second thought is closely tied to what i just said. christ is called the head of the church. we often associate headship with authority, and i would not argue it is wrong to do so. but does headship always refer to authority? is it possible to use the term headship and not be focusing on authority? for instance in 1 corinthians 12 the same body analogy we find in ephesians 5 is addressed. now, in 1 corinthians 12 it does not specify christ is the head of the body as it does in ephesians 5, but it is the same analogy, a body analogy. it is inconcivable to think christ would be the head of the body in ephesians 5, but not the head of the body in 1 corinthians 12. my point is, the role of the godhead in i cor. 12 is not what i would see as authoritative. the spirit gives differing gifts that correspond to differing ministries that god uses in differing ways to accomplish his purposes. he speaks of god arranging the parts of the body as he wants them to be and combining the parts of the body. he teaches the body is to function interdependently which in itself shows he does not function authoritatively. if it were authoritative, why would he give them freedom of choice. he could insist, force, even make them do his will. he does not. his headship seems to reflect direction, instruction, coordination, care, nourishment, protection, honor, etc. some of these same themes are referenced in ephesians 5. so, after much blogging, what have i said. don’t get hung up on labels. look at the recipe. what is it??? the role of the wife is to serve her husband and the role of the husband is to serve the wife. when we do this it works. as soon as selfishness sets in and we get into a tug of war over who will serve who, well that’s when it starts to fall apart. i’ll focus on this a little more next time. thanks for reading. drop me a line and tell me what your thinking. pefcvince@sbcglobal.net