Strange Glory

[There is a ] slander that says because Christianity teaches that man is head of his home, it permits men to abuse their wives. What the Bible really teaches is very different. According to the Bible, to be the leader means to sacrifice oneself for the other, as Christ sacrificed Himself for the Church. If Christ is the pattern for the husband – and He is – then what the Bible calls for is self-sacrificial love that glorifies the wife. This is not a view that promotes abuse of any kind. [Ralph Smith, Trinity and Reality, p66]

The first chapter of Ephesians therefore helps us to make sense of the fifth chapter.

If you come to the fifth chapter with the wrong assumptions about what is going on, you will be hopelessly overwhelmed by a rigid Marriage Law.

If all that Christ’s coming did was raise the ethical standard to a higher level, then our condidtion is hopeless. But if we have received the grace revealed in the Incarnation – the grace St. Paul prayed that we might have in Ephesians 1:17-18 – what then? If you have the spirit of wisdom and revelation, how will you think of your husband or wife? If the eyes of your understanding are enlightened and you know how the saints are a glorious inheritance for Christ, then you know what a husband and a wife are. And you will not know it until then.

(Wilson, For a Glory and a Covering p9)