Page 153 - Ephesians

no sense in which you can interpret this passage, where the
husband is saying, “I’m the boss, and I rule the roost.” In this
passage, the husband is the giver and the servant. He’s living for
another, his wife. There is no domestic tyranny in this passage.
I’m hitting this hard because it has been so abused. It’s tragic
what some Christians have done to this passage. It’s pitiful to see
what has happened to God’s illustration of union with Jesus
Christ. When you destroy the illustration like this, you will always
miss the reality.

For a man to ask for a woman’s love and life, then become her
oppressor, is tragic. Yet it’s happening all over the place, in the
name of the Lord. It’s selfish, and self-indulgent. It’s prideful and
capricious to rule your life partner. You won’t find it in Ephesians
5, and you won’t find it anywhere in the Bible. God never
intended it! In verse 23,

“Christ is the head of the church; He Himself, being the
Savior of the body,” verse 25, “Christ loved the church and
gave Himself up for her,” verse 29, “No one has ever hated
his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ
also does the church.”

I understand why people are thrown off, because there are two
words here that throw you off. When you see the word “Head”,
and when you see the word, “Submit”. That can lead you down
the wrong path because you think the word “Head” means “Lord”,
and the word “Submit”, means “obey”. But words are used and
fully defined by the context in which they are used. When you
read verse 23, “The husband is the head of the wife”, and
verse 22, “Wives are subject to the husband”, and verse 24,
“Wives ought to be subject to their husbands in everything”.
It sounds like it’s saying, “I’m the boss, you’re the servant, and
you do what I say.” But it’s not saying that.

You see, the word “Head” in this context, does not mean “Lord”.
There is another place in the Bible where head is used as “Lord”,
but not here. He’s talking about the relationship that the brain, the