Cheryl Schatz

1 Peter 2:6 (NAS)
6 For this is contained in Scripture:
“BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone,
AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

Jesus was set in place as a precious corner foundational stone upon which His church was to be built. As the corner stone Christ gave up His life so that the church could exist. Which that sacrifice there would be no building.

Contrast that with what the very first man did. He was laid as a cornerstone, the first one to be created and from him would come his bride. As the first stone laid and the source of his wife, he was to cherish her as his own body. He was to treat her as he treats his own body and the one who would initiate sacrifice as an example. But the first Adam failed to do that. Instead of identifying the deception and the deceiver (and he recognized both since he was not deceived) he allowed his own body (his wife) to be destroyed.

But Jesus as the last Adam did not fail to provide for His own body. He gave all He had to come and receive His wife to Himself. He laid down His life, He nourished us, He protected us and He allowed us to respond to Him in willingly love. He never took an authority to demand love but as the perfect example of husbandly love, He initiated the sacrifice, initiated the cherishing and initiated the clinging to or joining Himself with her. When a man follows Jesus’ example, he will willingly give himself for his bride to bring her up to his level so that she too has all the privileges and rights as he does. He will sacrifice himself to give her everything that she needs and not selfishly demand that she serve him and die to herself so that his needs will be met.

I believe that men as “head” of their wives (not head over their wives) have been set up by God as the preeminent part of the body to initiate in every way so that the wife is granted equality and equal opportunity to serve God. In the church there have been godly men who have elevated women past the place where the world has held females. The world values women as less than men in order to use them up for men’s benefit. When they are of no use, they are discarded. But Christianity with godly men has changed that to place a value on women that far exceeds the world’s value. When the church changes their mindset so that the men understand that Jesus gave up everything for His bride to elevate her beside Him, and they understand this they will release women to be beside them too. And when men and women walk in unity and in equality in the church, each working in the special giftedness that each has been given by the Holy Spirit, we will be a light set high on a hill to the world showing the heart of God. No longer desiring to rule over each other, but dying to self to elevate the other past the restrictions and the prejudices of the world.