Excuse Me, are you a Block Head?

²³For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.²⁴Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Eph 5:23-24

Following on from my earlier post on the headship of man, I want to focus on what the shape of headship look like.

If you are one of those who think that being the head naturally confer on you the rights to come home to your family slouched in front of the goggle box justifying that it is a hard day’s work without lifting a hand to help your equally weary wife who is busy minding the noisy kids, I am afraid you are in the same category as those who are described by the title of this post. If you are those who thinks that it is the head’s immutable perogative to keep your date with your computer game while your poor wife is slogging away in the kitchen or laundry room, it just shows how little you understand biblical headship.

Among the many things regarding this headship, I would like to focus on 2.

1)  Biblical headship is authoritative.

What kind of authority is it? It is that kind with the word ‘Loving Sacrifice’ written boldly across it. And authority always assumes responsibility.  And that means that every husband is responsible for his household before God. He is responsible for his family’s provision, he is responsible for his family’s spiritual state, whether his wife is progressing in her holiness, whether the children are growing up in the training and admonistion of the Lord. In other words, on judgment day, every husband can rest assured that God will ask him, the same way He looked for Adam after their fall, how he has been leading the family that was entrusted to him by God, whether leading them towards God or away from Him. What a sheer responsibilty and weight upon our shoulder! And God, knowing that we are not able to perform all this by ourselves,  in his mercy has provided a help-meet to assist us. And she is no other than flesh of our flesh and bone of our bones.

2) Biblical headship is sacrificial

Husband headship over his wife ought to be patterned after Christ headship over the church. And what kind of Head is Christ? He is known as the Saviour of the church  in the text above. In other words, He gives himself for her. In the same way, husband is to give himself for their wife. Husband, do we give ourselves for our wife or do we give material substitutes (whatever it may be) to her in place of us? Is our love, prayer, time, resources, strength, etc spent for the benefit of her physically and spiritually? And how does that translate into every day application?I leave that for us to ponder and perhaps to share.

Trinity, good fear of God and a five year young mind

Recently I encountered 2 of the most difficult questions in my life from a young mind with the faculty of wonder.

My son was not able to do the maths regarding why is it possible for God to exist in three Persons and yet remain as One God. In fact, he was rather frustrated by this mathematical impossibility.

I was trying to explain to him using the three stages of water – ice, water and water vapour. Nevertheless, I think I fail miserably.

Not long after hearing Pastor Yuk Yee preached from Prov 1:7 “the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom’, he asked us in his words , ‘why after being afraid of God, you will begin to love Him’

I was stumped.

Firstly, he actually distills the essence of the sermon. Which means that every parent should not be too discouraged if you think that your children are cruising through the sermons. God’s Spirit is working mightily! Keep praying.

Secondly, how to explain the concept of love and fear to a five year plus boy. Aren’t they suppose to be mutually exclusive?
I tried to explain using the situation of a boy meeting the Prime Minister, the sense of awe and respect that is overwhelming. I think I too fail miserably.
Anyone have a better analogy?

Inescapable Headship

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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Eph 5:23-24

I now come to a topic that may ruffle a few feministic feathers and may seem to be pandering to MCPism (Male Chauvinistic  Pig).

But our doctrine should not originate from man but from God’s words.

And what does it say?

Our text above says that man is the head in the marriage. Note that it does not say that man ought to be the head. In other words, every man is the head of his wife (as Christ is the head of the church) regardless he is behaving like one. Obedience or disobedience on the part of the husband does not make him a head or not a head. He is one regardless- he is either an obedient head or a disobedient head. He can be an obedient head who tells the truth about Chirst in His sacrificial love or he can be a head that lies about Him through selfishness but silence is not an option.

And since he is the head of his wife the same way Christ is the head of the Church, we can learn about our marriage by looking to the marriage between Christ and the Church.

More on this…..

Marriage – The Great Mystery

³¹“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^{[c] 32}This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.³³However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. Eph 5:31-33

The bible describes the union of a man and a woman as a great, profound mystery. In what sense is it a great mystery? In the sense that every marriage is imaging the relationship between Christ and the Church.

What am I saying?

In Scritpture, Christ is known as the Groom and the Church the Bride. The great marriage feast shall be on the day when Christ will return for His Bride. The relationship between this Groom and Bride is one of love and respect. (Eph 5:22-29)

Since our marriage is a tiny picture of that great Relationship, the thing to ask of us is what kind of message is it conveying? Depending on how we treat our wive and how our wive respond to us;

1) It can proclaim the truth about Christ and the Church rightly as stated above if there is love and submission

or

2) It can speak the lies  of that Relationship if we treat each other shabbily

The only option our marriage does not have is to maintain silence.