Kristen

Mark, you cited this with regards to church authority:
“Tit 2:15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.”
If male authority is so clear and obvious, why is there nothing equivalent or even similar in the New Testament with regards to husbands? Why are husbands never told “lead your wives with all authority” or anything like this?
In 1 Peter 5:1, Peter says to the elders of the church, “Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by constraint but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly, not as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock. . .”
If husbandly authority is so obvious and clear, why are there no clear words like this to husbands? How easy would it be for Peter to say, “You husbands, lead your wives as their authority, not by constraint but willingly, not to your own advantage but for their benefit, not lording it over them, but being examples.” In a world where male privilege was a given, such words were certainly expected. And yet he never says them. Neither does Paul. Neither does any writer of Scripture. Instead it’s all “nourish and cherish as your own body,” “love as Christ did when He gave Himself,’ “treat her with respect as a fellow-heir of the grace of life,” etc.
Notice in 1 Tim 3:4, when qualifications for church leadership are given, an overseer is to have his children in submission. Not a word there about having his spouse in submission. Why? Again, wifely subjection by the husband was the expected norm. And yet it is omitted from the passage. To us, this is hardly noticeable. To the original readers, it would have screamed.
This isn’t the only indication that Paul and Peter were saying Christian marriages weren’t supposed to look like the patriarchal marriages of the world at that time– but it’s a big indication. Paul and Peter were teaching a new dynamic existing within Christian marriage, in which male and female as joint heirs with Christ, adopted sons, a royal priesthood, would stop relating to each other under the old “he’s in charge, I’m subordinate” paradigm. Misunderstanding the historical background and the shared cultural assumptions of the time, leads people to mistake the assumptions, for the commands of God.