God's Not Like That: Redeeming Inherited Beliefs and Finding the Father You Long ForShembull

God's Not Like a Domineering Husband

According to the Ephesians 5 text in today’s Scripture, husbands are to illustrate Christ’s selfless love for His church. The imagery is unmistakable. Jesus so loved His bride that He humbled Himself to die on a cross to present His bride “as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless” (Ephesians 5:27 NIV). Husbands are to love their wives in the same way. Husbands are to emulate the love of Christ at home.

So, if the husband has the responsibility to depict Christ and to present his wife before God, then he must also be given the authority to carry out his responsibility. This authority is called the headship role of the husband. “For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23). As Christ has authority in the church, so the husband has authority in the home. As the church is submissive to the headship of Christ, so must the wife be in submission to the headship of the husband, since he is the one given the authority to carry out his God-given responsibility.

Now, headship does not mean the husband is the boss man. He is portraying Jesus as the head of the church. Headship relates to the responsibility the husband has toward his wife before God. As Jesus did, the husband must die to himself to create an environment where his wife can flourish in the way God made her.

Rightly performed, the husband’s role gives us a picture of the God who loves us.

If your dad was painting a picture of Jesus through his role as a husband, is that picture attractive or unattractive to you? In other words, if Jesus treats you the way your dad treated your mom, how attractive is that Jesus to you?