The wife is to respectfully obey the husband: The Excellent Wife P/10

 
                                     Read part One HERE

In this post I will continue to focus on bible teacher and author Martha Peace. This time we will look at statements from Chapter Ten of her book "The Excellent Wife."

Martha Peace: "Respecting your husband is not an option for you if you are going to be in God's will."

Martha Peace: "Husband have been given authority over their families by God. The wife is to respond respectfully to her husband because of his God-given position. The Scripture makes it clear that "Christ is the Head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ (1 Corinthians 11:3)."

Martha Peace: "The wife's position to her husband is that as a soldier to his superior officer."

My Comment

Wives are to respect their husbands (Ephesians 5:33). Likewise, husbands are to respect their wives (1 Peter 3:7).

As for husbands having been given authority over their families, children are to obey both parents, not just their fathers (Exodus 20:12, Ephesians 6:1-3, Colossians 3:20).

As for wives, 1 Corinthians 11:3 refers to women in general and not to wives specifically. In this verse Paul used the Greek term "kephale" which means "source," "source of life." However, it does not not mean "authority." We can see this from the order in which Paul listed the three pairs: Christ/every man, man/woman, and God/Christ.
 If Paul had given us an hierarchical order to establish authority he would have written
God/Christ, Christ/every man, man/woman but he has not done so.
Paul, who was a very orderly writer, had something entirely different in mind, namely a chronological order to establish that "head" meant "source." As such, the chronological order makes perfect sense for Christ was the source of life for the first man from whom every human being has descended, the first man was the source of life for the first woman and God was the source of life for Christ in His Incarnation.

As for the wife's position to her husband being that of a soldier to his superior officer, there is no Scriptural support for such a view for all believers are called to be soldiers for Christ (2 Timothy 2:3-4) and are to told to put on the armour of God (Ephesians 6:10-18).

 

Read Part Eleven HERE