pinklight

Hi Tom,

The facts of Scripture show that “the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church”, Eph 5.

It is a fact that the Bible says, in Eph 5, that the husband is the head of the wife. The question is though, what did Paul mean when he wrote that statement?
The context of Ephesians 5 is going to support what Paul meant by saying that the husband is the head of the wife, and the context is the best evidence available for what he meant.
When I look at the context, I see that the initial definition given to “head” that is provided by Paul, is in the same verse that the term is first used, v23 – For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. How then is Christ defined as “head” by Paul?
Paul defines Christ as “head” to mean “savior.” It’s right there in v23. So what I see is that Christ as head was a servant to the Church, giving himself up completely to the point of death, therefore the husband is the servant of his wife as Christ was servant to the Church. Do you see Christ’s sacrifice as a position of servanthood?
So when I begin to formulate my idea of what “head” means according to the context, I’m going to begin with v23 – how Paul defines Christ as “head” of the Church.
My question is to you is, where do you begin with the context to define Paul’s use of the term “head?”