pinklight

Tom,

NOTE THAT SUBMISSION BOTH PRECEDES AND FOLLOWS HEADSHIP IN THIS SCRIPTURE!! How much more plain must God be?

24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Since the title “Christ” refers to Jesus’ human nature, (and not his divine nature, the husband is not compared to God who has authority) in what way then does the Church submit to him? In what way does the Church submit to his humanity or flesh? The Church submits by accepting his death on the cross, it submits to his service, it submits to his sacrifice for her, which is what the husband as “head” is to do for the wife. He is to sacrifice himself for her as Christ did for the Church. The wife isn’t called to submit to the husband’s authority (though the husband had civil authority in Paul’s day) and she isn’t called to submit to his spiritual authority, and in which case he is never given any within the passage.
I’ve only ever seen two reasons given by comps for supporting the notion that “head” means to have “authority over” when looking to the text itself. The first is the wife’s submission, and the second the belief that the husband is compared to God. And comps never can provide support that deals directly with the husband himself, and we have to wonder why? The wife’s submission can’t count since her service is the same rendered to other Christians and within a context that is mutual. And the husband is not compared to God, that would be a lie. So then, the idea that the husband is in authority over the wife is just a fairy tale. And I’m not big on fairy tales, personaly.