Kristen

I agree wholeheartedly with Dave.
I have no problem with the idea that authority should exist, and that authority in Christianity is to look and act differently than authority in the world. What I deny is that authority of husbands over wives (or masters over slaves) is God’s plan for Christian relationships. Instead, I see the Scriptures acknowledging that according to the systems of the world at that time, husbands had authority over wives and masters over slaves– but that Christian life was to be distinguished instead by the mutual submission of each Christian to one another as equals before God (this set the stage for the systems of master-over-slave and husband-over-wife to pass away– and also for the parent-child relationship to change such that children were no longer seen as extensions of their parents, but as able to have callings of God in their own right– thus empowering children to grow in autonomy as they grew in maturity). Authority within the Christianity (such as Paul’s apostolic authority) comes from the calling of God alone, and is not according to the flesh– and those called to such authority are to be characterized by their servant hearts. Christians are still to submit to the authority structures of the world, but to see themselves as “in the world, but not of it.”