The teaching [of Ephesians 5:22-31] is that the initiative and the leadership are ultimately the husband’s, but the action must always be co-ordinated. That is the meaning of this picture — co-ordinated action but leadership in the head. There is no sense of inferiority suggested by this. The wife is not inferior to her husband; she is different. She has her won peculiar position, full of honour and respect. That is why the man is later to be told to cherish and to nourish and to love and to care for, and to respect and honour his wife. There is no inferiority involved. What Paul is teaching is that any Christian woman who realizes all this will love to please her husband, to be useful to him, to help him, to aid him, to enable him to function. She will not cavil at saying “and obey” in the marriage service.
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, Life in the Spirit in Marriage, Home & Work: An Exposition of Ephesians 5:18-6:9, pg. 124-125
2 comments:
I think the Bible very clearly tells wives that they are to OBEY their husbands in literally ALL things. They do not belong in the work force and at home in submission to their parents until marriage.
Jack,
Thank you for demonstrating an unbiblical and legalistic worldview about women.
Women are not to obey their husbands in all things -- only that which is as in the Lord; if a husband wants his wife to participate in illegal activities or immorality, she does not have to obey him.
Why cannot women be in the work force? what about the Proverbs 31 woman? I agree that if a woman is married and has children, her work should be at home, but otherwise there is no reason she cannot have a job.
And where in the Bible does it say a woman has to be in submission to her parents until married? What if she never marries?
You sound like you got your training from Bill Gothard.
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