God has given us (fallen mankind) three institutions as essential weapons for
us to use as we fulfill our original, pre-Fall mission of ruling over the earth (Genesis 1:26-28)—the family, the church and the civil government
As we have seen, the diagram of the Ship of the Kingdom, pictured below, shows us how God is, post-cross, re-establishing His original Eternal Purpose of delegating dominion over the earth to mankind. The initial delegation by God of His kingdom was to the Perfect Man, Jesus Christ.
This delegation is represented by the first vertical line at the top of the diagram. It occurred at the Ascension, after God had legally taken His Kingdom back from Satan in a “divine string operation” at the cross.Then at Pentecost, ten days after the Ascension, Jesus delegated this recently-received Kingdom to a recently-redeemed mankind!. This delegation flows to our ruling weapons that are each energized by the same three distinctives: 1.) Authority, 2.) Responsibility, 3.) Accountability.
However, according to the Bible, each distinctive functions differently in each institution. Let’s see how these differences are expressed in the family, that foundational institution.
1. Authority – According to the Bible, in the family the wife submits to her husband, personally and individually, just as if he were Jesus Himself:
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:22-24)
This, of course, is a ridiculous, repulsive idea in today’s feminist, trans, LGBTQ+ society. Even some evangelical, conservative churches have slowly compromised their previously biblical positions.
For whatever reason, they have not publicly stood against this blatant, satanic, attack on our once-Christian culture, refusing to boldly and lovingly proclaim biblical truth in the face of public debauchery. Many churches have folded and yielded to this dramatic cultural shift, or simply silently completely ignored the issue and pretended it is not the church’s concern to be involved in worldly politics, (strange, when we are told in Genesis 1:26-28 that we are created to rule over them—go figure!).
I believe it is important to understand what “submit to your own husbands” means. It does NOT MEAN THAT THE HUSBAND “RULES” OVER THE WIFE! After all, she is created RULE WITH HIM as his co-regent, following his leadership as HE LEADS! She is not his slave. He has nothing to do with HER RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD and her personal, inner life whatsoever!
The Proverbs 31 woman is our example. She was the perfect submitted-to-her-husband wife, who made her husband proud. She ran her household, started businesses, planted vineyards, and sold real estate,all without her husband’s involvement or even understanding. However, all these activities were done with his knowledge and approval, for he alone is her head, “But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3).
This verse defines the authority structure of every biblical family: God the Father is the authority over Jesus Christ; Jesus Crist is the authority over every, individual husband; the husband is the authority over his wife; both are in authority over their children (Ephesians 6:1).!
2. Responsibility – Along with this immense authority, God has also given men immense responsibility:
“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her…that He might present her to Himself a glorious church (wife), not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church (Ephesians 4:25, 27-29).
Yes, men, we are to give our lives to and for our wives and literally “save” them in this life, as we are leading them with strong, firm, decisive, decision-making.
I can remember distinctly, after Jill and I had been married some 15 years, laying in bed in emotional pain after a particularly bad stretch in our marriage. I sensed a presence in the room and rolled over, saying aloud ,”Who’s there?” I heard a voice in my heart say, “You will be her savior!” I can say, 42 years later, God has kept that promise!
3. Accountability – If the husband has complete authority in the family, then he alone is fully accountable to the One who delegated this leadership role to him—Jesus Christ his Head. There will come a day when we will be exposed: ”For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10).
We will be held accountable for how we have loved and led our wives, and how we have submitted to our husbands. This will be our final experience of learning to “walk in the light” together with our brothers and sisters (1 John 1:4-10)..
So, the family is unique in the trio of institutional weapons in that it has only one man to whom God has given final authority. Next week we will look at the church through the same authority-responsibility-accountability lens.
