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Amazed
by LaCrum on Fri Jul 09, 2010 1:22 pm
Now, what about the household? Do you believe that the man should still be the head of the household, and that his wife should submit to him? Or do you believe that both are equal?
Equal with different roles.
When we think of the word "submit" in our society, it has a lot of negative connotations, but when used in the NT, it actually is the same word to describe the position of soldiers in formation.
For example, the soldier who was pulling up the rear would thus be "submitting" to the soldier in front. If this soldier refused to play this role and instead insisted on performing the same role as the lead soldier, it would throw their whole formation out of line and leave them exposed.
The same goes with the marriage relationship, when one of the two is not playing their role, it has dire effects on their relationship.
LaCrum has put the principle in a nutshell in that post. Equal with different roles is precisely the New Testament teaching. It is less about authority, than it is about different roles in the Body of Christ. There is only one Lord in the ekklesia, and in the Body of Christ, and in the family. That is the Lord Jesus Christ. A man who makes himself Lord in any of those situations has usurped the position of his Lord Jesus Christ. Submission is not intended to make the one submitted to a Lord.
And that includes the children in a family setting. They are just as human as the parents. But their role is to learn from the parents. That is what makes parenting such a very serious role, for both parents. The role of the parents is to teach the children. And if we realize that children are as human as we are, it is much easier to give them the affection that they deserve and need, as well as the discipline that speaks with both authority and teaching, the authority and teaching of Jesus Christ.
And Paul did say that “The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things; That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children, To be discreet, chaste, keepers at home, good, obedient to their own husbands, that the word of God be not blasphemed.†(Titus 2:3-5) It is right that you identify with the women teachers in the way that you do. Women are not to teach in the meetings of the ekklesia. That is the responsibility of the men. And the men are to exercise this responsibility through the Spirit.
But the older women are to teach the younger women outside of the ekklesia. The women need a different kind of teaching. An experiential teaching that is not always so doctrinally minded, though not against the teaching of God. The women do not need so much the “deep teachings of Godâ€, as the practical teachings of God. And that is due to their role in the ekklesia and in the family. And you will note that women teachers are generally much more practical minded than the men teachers. But again, there is the need for the teaching to be through the Spirit of God.
And notice how in the Old Testament, when the men fell down on the job, so to speak, when they would not walk according to their God, God raised up women to take their place. So men who think that the women teachers are a sign of degraded times need to take a close look at themselves.
JamesG
