Page 48 - Family Life Student Textbook

Study Section 9: The Husband is to be a Servant Leader to his Wife.

9.1 Connect
Loving your wife unconditionally, the way God commands us to love her, will help us to fulfill
the second role of the husband—to be a servant leader. Too many husbands have learned the
wrong model of leadership and rule their wife like a dictator. But the Bible commands us not to
lead in this way. Today we are going to learn about a husband being a servant leader of his wife
and family. The significant word is “servant.” It makes all the difference in the world!

9.2 Objectives
1. The student should be able to understand the Biblical description of the husband’s role in
being a servant leader to his wife.

2. The student should be honest in evaluating our own style of leadership.

3. The student should be willing to make the necessary changes to bring his marriage leadership into
obedience to God’s Word.

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9.3 Be a Servant Leader to your Wife

Ephesians 5:23 “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.”

Ephesians 5:25–27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave
himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through
the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or
any other blemish, but holy and blameless.”

1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the
head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”

1 Corinthians 11:8–9 “For man did not come from woman, but woman from man; neither
was man created for woman, but woman for man.”

Leadership in marriage is based on divine placement, not superior abilities. Gods unique model for
leadership is as follows. God is the head of Jesus. Jesus is the head of man. Man is the head of his wife. This
forms a chain of command. We also see a chain of command among the Trinity. So, it should not surprise us
to see that God created a chain of command in marriage.

What are some biblical perspectives on what it means to be the “head”? As husbands, you are assigned the
leadership role.

1 Corinthians 11:3 “But I want you to realize that the head of every man is Christ, and the
head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.”

5 Credit for much of the material in this lesson is given to Dr. Bruce Wilkinson’s biblical manhood series called “Leading
and Loving”
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