Part 1: Order, Authority, & Female Submission
Our Memory and Meditation verses for this month are Ephesians 5:22-33. As the Hallmark, chocolate, and Jared’s ads start dropping in front of our media and streaming services we instead turn to the image of true marital love, the Gospel. The relationship of Christ and His Church parallels the relationship between men and the women. Paul begins with the role of the wife. He explains that her metaphorical example is the Church.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22-24).
Female Submission to Male Leadership
The first thing that the ladies usually do is bristle a bit at this idea. God explained this would be the case at the Fall of Man. “Your desire shall be contrary to your husband, but he shall rule over you (Genesis 3:16b).” The Bible anticipates the bristling of women partly because God knows that the guy she gets attached to will fall way short of the mark, and she will be more than his match in some areas. I brag on a regular basis about how Michelle in some areas of life far out excels me. In repetitive tasks and long term focus on a technical problem you would much rather have her look at it with you than me for sure.
However, order and authority are not based on a single set of factors between two people but on the relationship of Christ and His Church. Women is “bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh (Genesis 2:23). She helps him rule. She co-rules with him. All of Creation is under her feet except him.
Order and Authority
Order and authority exist on the axis of created order and purposes. Paul draws on the order and purposes in 1 Cirinthians 11 when discussing head covering. He writes, “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 (1 Corinthians 11:3).” Then, he explains this using the created order in Genesis 2 a few verses later saying, “For a man ought not to cover his head, since he is the image and glory of God, but woman is the glory of man. 8 For man was not made from woman, but woman from man (1 Corinthians 11:7-8).
Man, the male, is created in the image and glory of God, while woman is created in the image of God, but she is the glory of man. Ladies, that is why men are to defend you. You are our glory. You are the most wonderful and most beautiful creature in all of Creation. Woman is the glory of man. So man is strong to make defense but women is beautiful. He defends her beauty is with his strength. Men often lose our crown as our strength withers. It becomes a hoary crown of white but with a bald pate. Women, the Glory of Man, she never looses her crown. May she never sell it, her birthright of beauty and grace, for a pot of porridge.
Read Christ, His Church, & Marriage Part 2
All through February we will be exploring marriage using the relationship between Christ and His Church as the lens. Learn more about Solomon’s Porch Christian Church on our Home Page & What We Believe
Discover more from Solomon's Porch Christian Community
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.