Men and Women, Take Heart.

Sisters in this Great Faith, I have learned great things today that will make you happier, unless you already knew it, then it won’t matter as much. But anyway, in my New Testament class today a group did a presentation on the Epistle of Ephesians and they did quite well. After they finished, the professor just wanted to bring out some key things of their presentation as well as of the book of Ephesians. One such thing we talked about was in Chapter 5 verses 22-33. “22Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” Now, I understand that the idea of the wife submitting to the husband tends to be a hot topic for women and a touchy subject, but I have good news, it doesn’t need to be that way! Yes, the woman’s command has been to submit to the man, but you can not stop there, for the scripture also gives a command for the man, to love his wife as he loves himself and to give of himself for her, making her holy and blameless. He calls for us to care for the woman, as Christ does for the church, they become one in flesh, just as Christ and the Church have become one because Jesus is the Bridegroom and the Church (us!) is the bride. Our sinful natures have caused us to think that there is a hierarchy involved in this that the man is high and mighty and the woman is his servant, heavens no! We are one, equal, it is we just have different callings, or vocations, within Church. The head of household, or the man, isn’t about a power thing, it is about the responsibility, those like the provider, and the protector, the teacher, and those types of things. I have used my incredible graphic talents to make diagrams to show what I mean.
The relationship between Husband and Wife is not like this:

MAN



\/
WOMAN

It is more like this:

MAN <---------->WOMAN

I sincerely hope that you notice the difference between the two. If not, I’m sorry, I don’t know how else to explain it. We could get into a big debate or whatever about the position of women in the church, but lets not, because I feel it’s the same way, but just a different case. But I do hope everyone understands the similarity, but also the difference between the man and women or Husband and Wife. God’s blessings on your day as you live life in Him and in His love and in awe at all the great things He has done and the wonder and beauty of this world He has created.

In Christ,
Adam