Mara

Heidi: “Your husband will begin to adore and honor you as you lift him up ,and you reverence him as you would Christ. ‘At the cross at the cross where I first saw the light and the burdens of my heart rolled away.
It was there by faith I received my sight and now I am happy all the day.”’

The Cross of Christ has nothing to do with making the husband boss. Why do you wrap your salvation up in hierarchy when Jesus specifically stated, “NOT SO AMONG YOU”

Jesus said that we are not to rule over one another as the gentiles do, that whoever wanted to be the greatest needed to make themselves the least. Jesus came to destroy hierarchy yet people use the words of Paul to build back up the wall that Jesus came to tear down.

Paul wrote in his letters to follow him AS HE FOLLOWED CHRIST. Where the words of Paul and the words of Christ contradict due to translation misunderstanding or cultural misunderstanding, you go with the words of Jesus as your foundation and starting point, not to Paul’s words. You DON’T ignore the words of Jesus in order to follow the words of Paul. You look at the words of Jesus and try to figure out what Paul is saying with the words of Jesus as his foundation or starting point.

Concerning hierarchy Jesus specifically said, “Not so among you.”
So what was Paul saying?
He said, as one mentioned above, “Submit to one another” (Ephe 5:21) Then he goes on the help the people in that highly hierarchal culture know what that would look like. Men, who were in the higher position in that culture, needed to lay their lives down, like Christ did. Women, who already were in the subordinate position simply need to to submit as all were instructed.

The man would be the harder one to teach on submission since his culture taught him the opposite, so Paul used the picture of Christ, you know, washing the disciples feet (something only slaves and women did) and dying on a cross (a punishment usually reserved for slaves, male and female). He used that picture to help husbands understand that submitting and laying down of their lives in the kingdom of God is noble, right, and good, not, according to fleshly standards, demeaning, low, and dirty (like the cultural view of women and slaves).

As someone mentioned above…

You MUST take into considereations the WHOLE counsel of scripture and not focus on a puny smattering of hand-picked scriptures that male preachers have historically given too much importance to.