1st Feline Battalion

In my low-volume conversation with Savvy, I discussed a friend of mine (Bravo Lima) who recently married a Mexican gal. Part of that conversation involved a Bravo Lima’s comparison of American Christian women–a large number of whom have been corrupted by feminism–versus the women south of the border who are more likely to embrace their Ephesians 5 responsibilities.

(For the record: Bravo Lima was abandoned by his “Christian” wife. I knew her; she talked  great talk, but at the end of the day she felt the tail ought to wag the dog. She left him for reasons that had no connection to Scripture.)

Savvy raised the following issues with a retort:

So not being a feminist = spiritually mature??? Riiight. A woman can be very serious about Eph 5 responsibilities and not have much faith at all.

Depends on what you mean by that, Savvy. On one hand, the Pharisees–who in many cases had perfect doctrine on paper–failed to place their faith in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and follow that Messiah who kept telling them they had it all wrong.

On the other hand, the way husbands and wives accept their Ephesians 5 responsibilities–in the spirit in which Paul lists them–actually speaks volumes about their faith in God.

Let’s look at the passage in question.

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.

But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body.

The wife is commanded to submit to her husband in all things, as to the Lord. Without that last qualifier, any submission on her part is pure legalism. On the other hand, taken in entirety, a wife who submits to her husband as to the Lord, is demonstrating faith in God as well as a trust in her husband that is uncommon among women.

In so doing, she is expressing faith that her husband will trust God’s lead and love her properly; she is also trusting God to work in her and her husband for their benefit and God’s glory.

If she does not accept her responsibilities, she dishonors not her husband but God. She is telling the world that she does not have the faith that God will vindicate the covenant they have entered; the end result is a failure of the marriage to reflect God’s covenant love.

On the flip side, the husband‘s approach to his Ephesians 5 responsibilities–in the spirit they are given–tells the world about his faith in God. If he loves his wife as Christ loved the Church, then he will reflect the very Jesus who painstakingly taught, led, and ministered to 12 Disciples who were not always cooperative, one of whom even betrayed Him and self-destructed. Jesus ultimately died for the Church.

While the husband will not, cannot, and–thankfully–doesn’t have to redeem his wife, his sacrificial love–given in Ephesians 5 spirit–is a portrait of that finished work of Jesus.

The kicker: neither the husband nor the wife will execute those responsibities perfectly, because–human depravity being what it is–we are still self-serving jerks and jackals who, in spite of being new creations in Christ, still fall short of the glory.

Back to the point: while a husband or wife can submit legalistically–lacking faith–such legalistic submission is not Ephesians 5 submission.

Ergo, I’d submit that Savvy is wrong.