56 Mark,

You said:

First, we are all under authority. I don’t know how important we must stress this point.

We are under God-ordained authority of the government. However God has never ordained an authority of the husband over the wife. Authority cannot be assumed. It must be given.

Second, why is a wife under her husbands authority? I’m surprised at this really. The best answer is to look at the Bible. Ephesians 5 teaches us that the wife must submit to her husband as the church does to Christ.

So you are saying that a wife must be under her husband’s authority because she is to submit to him? The problem with this reasoning is that her submission is never said to be submission to authority. And he is never given authority over her. It is a key point that authority must be given. Authority is such an important issue that it cannot be assumed to exist for resisting authority and disobeying authority brings punishment. Thus because authority has a responsibility regarding punishment, it cannot be assumed but must be given by God.

Authority of a husband over his wife fails every test of legitimate authority. It is never directly given by God to a husband. A husband can never legitimately “punish” his wife for not obeying him. While a government can “punish” its citizens for not obeying and a government can enforce obedience, a husband can do neither. Any “authority” that is taken by the husband is cultural and is not God-given. In our free countries a husband can be held accountable for “punishing” his wife for not obeying him. He can also be held accountable by the courts and by the law for forcing his wife into obedience. Only in non-free lands where the culture gives unilateral authority to the husband can he practice his “authority” over her without impunity.

What kind of God-given authority does a man have that has no power over his wife to force her to obey or to punish her for disobedience? God-given authority always has power and the right to punish. It is only in pagan lands where the culture is not godly that the husband has full authority over his wife. In Christian lands, the husband does not have this power or authority that he can enforce on her. There is no evidence that the husband has a God-given authority over the wife.