Today I am taking the garbage out.
Yesterday, Focus on the Family posted on “What does it look like for a husband to live out Ephesians 5:25 – 33.”
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for 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.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Then? The very first thing they wrote was that the husband holds the role of spiritual leader. They are referencing Ephesians 5:23 which they don’t even quote or cite in their article.
23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.
Then they spend more time in the article talking about how the husband is the responsible leader than they do about how the husband is to actually live out the verse.
THIS IS GARBAGE THEOLOGY
This thinking: that “the husband is the spiritual leader” is the very thing Jesus came to wipe out. The simplicity of the interpretation of Paul’s writing to mean that men are the head of the wife, means they are the spiritual leader is quite frankly, LAZINESS and a CONVENIENT method for men to hold power.
What was Paul really talking about?
“Paul wanted first-century husbands, who usually had more honour than their wives, to treat their wives as having the same level of importance as themselves. They were to love their wives and treat them as their own male bodies, which at that time, had more honour and more importance than female bodies.” – Marg Marcowczko
“In this passage, the church is not under Christ’s feet. Rather, we are his body (my emphasis) and are, or should be, the fullness of Christ. We are not only joined to the “head,” we are to embody his fullness.” – Marg Marcowczko
Jesus came to turn human structure upside down.
Jesus directly describes a reversal of strength and status.
“But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.”
— Matthew 19:30
Jesus reverses the definition of greatness.
“Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant.”
— Matthew 20:26
Honor others above yourself
In Romans 12:10, Paul writes:
“Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.”
The world says greatness = authority
Jesus says greatness = service & honor