-One of the most despised passages in the Bible, this - a place where many modern women decide that they don’t like Paul at all. His ideas are too old fashioned, too restrictive. He’s just one of the more prominent early examples of a long succession of male chauvinists. And then the baby gets thrown out with the bath water. The Word of God gets parsed and spliced according to taste and personal preference, or neglected altogether. But there’s not even anything wrong with the bath water, much less the baby. The problem starts with the baggage we all bring to God’s Word to begin with, millenia of brokenness played out in relationships between man and God and between men and women. It begins with our lack of humility to rank ourselves under our Creator and His commands, our unwillingness to embrace His design and plan and purposes for our lives, what He wants for the people whom He designed to know Him and reflect what He is like in every facet of their lives.
-Which is why in this verse Paul zooms out and unpacks the broader rationale behind why the wife specifically must be ranking herself under her husband. Again, it is not about comparative value, who is better or more important. Marriage at its very best and as it was originally designed is to reflect the relationship between God the Son and His Bride, that beautiful Assembly of the redeemed. That Christ is the Head of the Church is not a new idea here (Ephesians 1.22, 4.13; Colossians 1.18; 1Corinthians 11.3) - but in this metaphor the head is placed among the members of the body in the position of authority. It is where choices and options are weighed and where decisions are best finalized. Other parts of the body are no less important, and certainly contribute to the decision making process. The stomach, the heart, the loins all play vital roles in the life of the body, but it is usually best for them not to be in charge. Christ is in charge. He stops the buck. Part of this includes the glorious truth that He is Savior. He took the proverbial bullet of God’s wrath on behalf of His bride. And because of this He is the Boss. The gathered global throng of those who are truly His, they look to Him and defer to Him. Thus God has designed it such that every wife has the opportunity within the covenant of biblical marriage to display this same deference and respect to her God-given husband.
-It is imperative to note that removing the head, however it is done, results in the destruction of the life God put therein, designed to issue forth in blessing and fruitful abundance. The entire body ceases to function properly (or at all). Proper functioning of head-and-body metaphorically within the covenant of marriage is just as important as it is when applied in a literal context. when the wife seeks to dominate the marriage relationship and casts off her husband as head, the marriage ceases to function in the way in which God designed, and the intended blessing which God designed to be experienced within and through that relationship fails to fully materialize (if at all).
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