Read Part One HERE
In this post I will continue to focus on abuse by pastor Mark Driscoll at his previous church, Mars Hill church Seattle, Washington. USA.
Pastor Mark Hill has made the following statement on "Men and Marriage ."
"A husband should be the firm and responsible head of his household, the leader of "a little flock called home and family." He should think of his wife as "a garden" and himself as "the gardener." "If you look at your garden and don't like how it looks," Driscoll preaches, "just remember: You are the gardener."
My Comment
Pastor Mark Driscoll seems to have been influencedy by pastor Doug Wilson whose wife Nancy Wilson wrote in her book "The Fruit Of Her Hands" that the wife is a garden that belongs to her husband as follows: "In many ways the husband is the garden tender, and his wife becomes a great source of joy and delight to the husband as he spends time in the garden he faithfully tends."
However, the Bible does not teach that the wife is a garden that the husband is to spend time in as her gardener. But in John 15 we read of God as the Gardener. In this passage Jesus is the Vine and every Christian is a branch. Such a branch is to bear fruit and may be pruned by the Gardener in order to be able to bear more fruit. As for bearing fruit, it refers to the spiritual fruit of the Spirit that we read about in Galatians 5:22
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
A Christian wife is responsible before God for her own life and for the development of spiritual fruit in her life. It is not her husband's task to tend to the fruit for that is done by God the Father who prunes it as the Gardener so this Christian wife may bear more fruit.
Read Part Three HERE
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