If Only

The fires and family health emergencies have retarded my reading and responding to various posts. Tim Challies blogged about wives submitting to husbands. I arrived there too late to be able to leave my 2c worth: what the church hasn't historically majored on, nor does now, is the urgency of the husband dying to himself for his wife as Christ died for the church. ONLY IN THAT CONTEXT does submission make any sense. And of course, immediately preceding the exhortation to wives, is the exhortation to mutual submission.

I have never seen a Xtian marriage about which I could really say, "Now THERE's the type of relationship I'd like." Even the one best example of a Xtian marriage I have seen, the husband is still someone I'd not want to be married to (as much as I cherish him as a brother in Christ, nay, as a father in Christ). In most cases, overtly or covertly, Christian husbands use the "headship" designation as an excuse for lording it over the wife. Had this not been the case over the centuries (not to mention the abuse of the submission verse as applying to all women under all men), the feminist movement would have never found fuel for its fire.