Tarun

Cheryl,

(C)My friend, you cannot take two unrelated passages and make an application between the two. Ephesians is not talking about a law or governing authority. That would be completely reading into the text.

(T)Here are the 2 scriptures in brief again :
(a)Ephesians talks about “Wives submitting to Husbands as to the Lord” and
(b)Romans goes “Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except by God’s appointment, and the authorities that exist have been instituted by God.”

The application I am making is that as total obedience to a Governing authority is not Idolatory as accepted by you and me. In the same way complete obedience of a wife to her husband “as” to the Lord is not Idolatory and this is only “one” of the aspects that would constitute a wife’s overall attitude to the husband “without” being idolatorous.

Now going by earlier posts I am quite sure you will say that nowhere in Ephesians does it say that a wife has to “totally obey” her Husband which is exactly what it means and this can be proven here.

1 Peter 3 1-6 “In the same way, wives, be subject to your own husbands. Then, even if some are disobedient to the word, they will be won over without a word by the way you live, 3:2 when they see your pure and reverent conduct.3:3 Let your beauty not be external – the braiding of hair and wearing of gold jewelry or fine clothes – 3:4 but the inner person of the heart, the lasting beauty of a gentle and tranquil spirit, which is precious in God’s sight. 3:5 For in the same way the holy women who hoped in God long ago adorned themselves by being subject to their husbands, 3:6 like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. You become her children when you do what is good and have no fear in doing so”

Lets look at this exaltation to the wife point by point.

Point 1. Be Subject to your own husband
Point 2. Even if Husbands are disobedient to the Word they will be won over without a word (from the wife)by the way the wife lives.
How much clearer can Scripture be, Even if the man is ungodly the Godly wife is expected to win him over by “the way she lives” and “without a word”
I would like to emphasise the “without a word” bit and please note that this is for a man disobedient to the word of God.
How much more should she remain “without a word” to a Godly husband who is following the leading of the Lord the best he knows how.
– Now what I am saying here is that the “without a word” is an attitude of the heart. It is not mute obedience with rebellion in the heart but a total surrender of her will to the husband in heart (check Vs 4) This obviously follows through in action even if she thinks differently.(Please dont go into the idolatory bit here, we’ve already dealt with the difference)
She can do this confidently, believing God to work out the situation for her and her husbands best ineterest knowing that she is in line with God’s word. It’s actually a question of the Wife’s faith in God and trusting him with childlike trust to reward her for her faith as opposed to her relying on her own wisdom and strategies which may be superior to her Husband’s in the natural and is exactly why she is put in that position so she may be proven of God in obeying the Husband given to her by God even if she knows differently and possibly better in the natural and thereby exhibiting trust in God and not her own strategies.

****Whew****

Point 3. Again (in Vs 5)being subject to your Husbands (note how it is mentioned twice in this very same passage)

Point 4. Lets discuss Sarah calling Abraham lord – Of course its tradition, she is not replacing Abraham for God what she is doing is exalting him as high as she knows to do.
Jesus said, “Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).
Now would’nt you say that all Sarah would have been giving him is Lip service when she calls him lord and doesn’t obey him when he states his particular view on a subject and expects her to follow him.
The fact is that the verse 3:6 actually goes “like Sarah who obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.

So what Peter is trying to say here is that
(a)Sarah obeyed
(b)the obedience was done with a heart attitude which was so reverent that out of the mouth came “lord”

Here again let me very clearly say that the word lord is not the point , a wife can call her husband anything she wants and that they are comfortable with but when push comes to shove God and the husband know that the wife will surrender her will to his. If she doesnt, its disobedience and we just established that obedience is a must.

Now I ask you –
(a)If there are 2 priests in the home and the wife priest is expected to obey the husband priest “absolutely” wouldn’nt the husband priest be the leader ? I’d say that’s kind of common sense

(b)and if the Husband priest is the “leader” of the wife priest and hence the household.
He becomes by God given right the “Priest of the home”

Trust that clarifies.

Later. . . .