Tarun

Cheryl,

I’m glad I popped by too 🙂 and lets use your
style of response to clarify my stance,

(C)There are many things that Jesus is to the Church that the husband is not.
(T) I agree.

(C)Although Jesus is “head” of the church and the husband is “head” of the wife, Jesus is also Savior of the church and Lord of the church and God of the church. The husband is none of these things.
(T)I was not trying to imply that the Husband “is” the Saviour/Lord and God of his wife.That is a role that only Christ can fulfill. However even though he “is not” what Christ is in full, his wife is expected to have an attitude toward him “as if he were”.

(C)We cannot just input everything that Jesus is to the husband unless the scripture tells us so.
(T) We are not inputing everything that Jesus is to the Husband, what we are doing is defining the attitude a wife should have towards her Husband and scripture does tell us so.
***Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands “as” to the Lord ***

The key word in this verse being “as”

(C) Jesus is the only High Priest and the husband is not a secondary high priest of the wife. Jesus is unique in this aspect.
(T)In no way did I intend to mean that the husband is a secondary high priest. There is only one High priest and that is Jesus but the point I was trying to make was that even though both men and women are designated priests we still look up as a church to Jesus who is a priest too but his office is of “The” High priest and in the same way that the body of Christ looks up to Jesus as the High priest (being priests themselves)so also should a wife look up to her Husband as her head not considering him to be “the” High priest but definitely a priest who has the calling to lead and she as a priest with a calling to follow.

***Ephesians 5:23 because the husband is the head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church – he himself being the savior of the body***

I did use “high priest of the wife” to illustrate that he was called to be the spiritual leader of the couple in an aspect similar to the differences in office between Christ who is a leader of the church of priests.

(C)If the husband was the high priest of his wife then the husband would have to offer the sacrifice for his wife and would be responsible for her salvation. Are you prepared to go that far?

(T)If I came across as meaning “the” High priest to the wife let me make it clear that it was not the meaning I intended. Of course Jesus is the only mediator in respect to salvation.
and to answer your question, Yes I am called to give myself for her and I will or atleast die trying. I do not mean a sacrifice which leads to salvation for my wife as I know it will not, but sacrifice in as much as is required even unto death putting her before myself which by the way is a given when you are talking about the love Jesus had for the church and incidentally is also a parallel calling for the Christian, Revelation 12:11c “and they loved not their lives unto the death.”

(C)I am not, nor does scripture say a word about the husband as functioning as any kind of high priest responsible for the spirituality of his wife or for her salvation.
(T)Refer you to my last response for the salvation bit but in terms of the spirituality of his wife I would say that scripture does not say that he is responsible but that he is called to (there is a difference)lead her spiritual walk upwards, refer below

Ephesians 5:27 so that he may present the church to himself as glorious – not having a stain or wrinkle, or any such blemish, but holy and blameless.36 5:28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies

Please note the very clear “In the same way”

(C)If it were we would find places where the husband is responsible for his wife’s spiritual direction. Adam was never held responsible for Eve’s choice and neither was Sapphira exonerated because she followed her husband’s suggestion that they both lie about the piece of property that they sold. Unfortunately many women have been influenced to believe that they are not responsible for their actions as long as their husband oversees them and guides them. God says this is not true when he judges women separately from their husbands. God never gives us any indication that husbands will be held responsible for their wives or that wives are “home free” by following their husbands. All of us are required to be mature Christians and to follow the Lord individually.

(T)The husband is not held responsible for his wifes decisions, neither are wives allowed to be irresponsble in following the lead of their Husband. It is a question of who leads and who follows if its quite obvious the Husband is guiding the wife the wrong way then she is expected to adhere to the Word of God as a priest in her own right and follow the leading of the Spirit.

However if it is for e.g something like choosing a church when both have different preferences and both churches seem good I believe that the Husband’s prayerful choice should prevail.

(C) All of us are required to be mature Christians and to follow the Lord individually
(T) Let me put it this way – when you are “married” we are required to be mature Christians and follow the Lord “together”

(C)Also no where does God ever give the man the mandate of a priest who makes the spiritual decisions for his wife.
(T) Yes, he does not give him the mandate of a priest who makes the spiritual decisions for his wife in those words exactly but what he does say is ***Eph5:24 But as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.***

We all have a free will and Jesus does not make our spiritual decisions for us, however He does let us know what His opinion is and I think that we would be wise to follow – would’nt you ?

Please note that I am not saying the Husband’s decisions are always right but that if a couple grow closer and closer in their walk with the Lord as they should then the Husband making spiritual decisions in areas which are day-day would be expected and desired, the wife would be rightly expected to follow after deferring to the Word as the final authority.

In that context take into account the following factors,
(a)if men and women are priests
(b)all Christians are called to a life of ministry
(c)the home is socio-setup within which the husband and wife fulfill a part of their their priestly calling
(d)The husband is expected to provide leadership in their spiritual walk together

I think it would be safe to say that in the context of the home the Husband is the priest.
Please note that I am not taking away the wife’s calling as a priest but when we use the term “Husband is the priest of the home” what we are implying is that he is the spiritual head in the context of his household.

Look at the other 2 ways of putting it across.
a) The wife is the priest of the home implies the wife leads , Husband follows
b) Both are priests of the Home implies both can move in opposite directions even when in accordance with the word based on personal opinion and past experience and anything else which might cause them to take different paths

(C)The issue of submission is a big one and one that we will explore further in this blog after we are done with the spiritual gifts of men and women.
(T)I look forward to it.

(C)Women too need to trust and obey the leading of the Holy Spirit and keep their homes surrounded with the love of God.
(T)True

(C)Nowhere are women exempt from finding out the Holy Spirit’s will for them by trusting in the husband’s “hearing from God”
(T)This is the way it works. Since there is only One Holy Spirit. He will lead both the Husband and the Wife down the same road. However when both have heard differently (problem of the flesh)the Word is looked into, and who-soever’s leading aligns with the Word of God goes. Lets say both Husband and Wife have heard from God differently(Problem of the flesh)and both inspirations align with the word then the Husband who is the Head should be obeyed otherwise there is not really much point in the Word of God calling him the head is there ?

(C)Women too are to have an intimate relationship with God and they too are to hear from God.
(T)Yes and Amen.

(C)To make women’s responsibility with God any less is to deny that men and women are equal before God
(T)Their responsibilities are not lesser or greater. They are different and Yes, Men and Women are equal but unique.

(C)and equally can have an intimate relationship with God.
(T)Yes and Amen.

(C)I hope that helps
(T)I do too.

May God bless.
T