Sword & Trowel 2020: Issue 1
an ingenious suggestion and plau- sible, but it is not actually what the Scripture says. We may believe it if we wish, but it is only an assumption. Scripture says she is punished be- cause she sinned first. She is chosen to bear one kind of punishment, and the man is chosen to bear another, to proclaim to us the Fall. Now here is another reason, and it takes us back to before the Fall. Says Paul, ‘I suffer not a woman to teach…for Adam was first formed, then Eve.’ The order of creation teaches that Adam will be the teacher and Eve will be the hearer. There was a message, a ‘law’, in the order of creation. Paul says that – ‘Adam was not
deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.’ But we should not conclude that she was first to sin because she was the most naive, or the least discerning, therefore women are unsuitable as teachers. This would suggest that Eve was made an inadequate and disadvantaged being. The Scripture only says that she sinned first, and so was guilty on her own account and deserved her portion of the punish- ment-cum-message.
ROLE RELATIONSHIPS IN EPHESIANS
Having acknowledged the headship of the man in marriage, we must give attention to the terms of that head- ship, because these are often abused, leading to great unhappiness. In Ephesians 5.22 we read: ‘Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.’ What
does submit mean? It is exactly the same word as used in Hebrews for church members submitting to an elder or to a pastor. What does submission to an elder mean? Does it mean he runs your life? Does it mean you have to take all decisions to him? Does it mean total domina- tion? Is it authoritarian? Of course not. Every wife has her gifts, her power
of reason, her abilities. She has a great many things to do and to deter- mine. We must not allow headship in marriage to be overpowering and overtowering, so as to deny the wife her stewardship of her powers and gifts. ‘Submit yourselves’ means – place yourself behind or under. He is to lead, but the husband should not dominate. Says the apostle – ‘Wives, submit
yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord,’ or in obedience to him. She will do so because the Lord says it; she wants to please the Lord, so she does it for him. Then the apostle says (verse 23)
– ‘For the husband is the head of the wife,’ in this heavily qualified sense – ‘even as Christ is the head of the church.’ There is surely no more challenging standard than this! Christ’s headship of the church is a benevolent headship, a loving head- ship, an upholding headship, a sacrificial headship, a joy-imparting headship (‘that my joy might remain in you’). Husbands should be able to say to their wives, every day, ‘my joy I give to you’. It is a faithful, caring, sensi- tive headship – ‘For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church.’
Biblical Roles of Men and Women page 11
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