In my previous article, I suggested that we should be cautious about attempting to be over prescriptive about what it means to practically apply Ephesians 5:21-32. I’m convinced that rather than looking at each aspect individually to see if wives are submitting, husbands are being good heads etc that we do best to look at… Continue reading Marriage health-check (applying Ephesians 5)
Tag: headship
Marriage, mutual submission and headship: what does it look like in practice?
In Ephesians 5:22-32 Paul instructs: Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord … Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” In a previous article, I argued that this was a fleshing out of 5:21 and the instruction to “submit to one another.” … Continue reading Marriage, mutual submission and headship: what does it look like in practice?
Ephesians and the family
The closing passages of Ephesians offer instructions on how families, or households should function. These seem to be follow in structure the household codes of the day, although with differences and as much rooted in Judaism/The Old Testament Scriptures as in Greek culture. They are sandwiched between the command to “be filled with the Spirit”… Continue reading Ephesians and the family
The pastoral dynamite of genuinely mutual submission
I’ve been arguing for some time that when Paul says “submit to one another” in Ephesians 5, that this means mutual submission, husbands and wives are both to submit to each other. This is controversial in some quarters but actually there is some heavy-weight historical support behind it including from the likes of John Calvin.… Continue reading The pastoral dynamite of genuinely mutual submission
On handling “saviour language” in Paul’s teaching on marriage
There have been a couple of articles elsewhere on the interweb recently about the relationship between men and women in marriage, specifically on what Ephesians 5 has to say about headship and submission. In this article, Andrew Bartlett has written a review of Kevin DeYoung’s book, Men and Women in the Church, a short, practical,… Continue reading On handling “saviour language” in Paul’s teaching on marriage
Who is in charge?
In response to my recent article on the different types of complementarianism, one stand out comment came back. A reader suggested that both complementarians and egalitarians alike have the same problem, they are essentially arguing about “who is in charge?” The result is that essentially the debate is about status, hierarchy and power. This goes… Continue reading Who is in charge?
The Complementarian compass
When we think about questions relating to the relationship between husbands and wives in the home and the role of men and women in the church, we tend to think of the debate being primarily between complementarians and egalitarians with a binary choice. I want to suggest that there are good reasons for not seeing… Continue reading The Complementarian compass
What kind of Church? A worshipping Church (1 Corinthians 11:1-16)
Why do we come together for worship? What is a church gathering all about? The key things can be summed up as: This will help us make sense of the next section of 1 Corinthians because this is where the focus is and these are things the Corinthians haven’t been too good at. I’m aware… Continue reading What kind of Church? A worshipping Church (1 Corinthians 11:1-16)
Is a husband his wife’s saviour?
Well the fire started the other day concerning sex, relationships and salvation doesn’t show any signs of dying down. Rachel Denhollander shared this from John MacArthur as another example of problematic teaching about marriage. Now, to be fair to Josh Butler whose TGC article kicked off this whole debate, I think that he might say… Continue reading Is a husband his wife’s saviour?
Review of the year – top ten articles
It’s time to have a quick look back at 2022. Here’s a list of the top ten blog articles from Faithroots this year. It gives a bit of a clue as to what topical issues and hot topics were of particular interest through the year. In at number 10 and number 9 respectively were articles… Continue reading Review of the year – top ten articles