God is quite busy
Out of context: Reply #283
- Started
- Last post
- 301 Responses
- gramme0
Scripture does make distinctions in the roles which best suit men and women, because gender is much more than skin deep. The Bible teaches that in the context of marriage, a man must lead his wife in a way that is gentle and considerate of her needs and desires, that fulfills her as a woman. Paul uses the example of Christ, who sacrificed his own desires for his bride, the church. It says that a woman must love her husband by respecting his leadership. He says that as the church submits to Christ as its head, so wives should submit to their husbands. The HUUUUGE caveat here is that if a man abuses his role as leader, then he ceases to be a leader worth following. Ephesians 5 goes into this subject at length, and ends with the common exhortation that husbands and wives and everyone else is called to submit to one another in love, i.e. to put one another's needs and desires first.
No one is capable of doing these things perfectly of course, but it's something to aspire to. It's the firm foundation upon which my own marriage is built. I don't trust myself to keep us together in the long run. I trust Christ.
- his bride, the church... sorry mate, you lost me here. Sometimes a cigar is a cigar as Freud said.********
- the church as the bride of Christ, and christ as the groom, is a metaphor for our relationship w/ him.gramme
- Jesus talked about it, as did Paul and others.gramme
- creepy********
- Only creepy if you miss what Christ has done for us and that the metaphor goes way beyond our fallen understanding of marriage.teleos
- marriage.teleos
- his bride, the church... sorry mate, you lost me here. Sometimes a cigar is a cigar as Freud said.