Do you expect your wife to submit to you?

Originally posted by RJHinds
Well, keep up whatever works for you.

Ditto.

Originally posted by FMF
Oh there have been plenty of disagreements.

What a relief. A marriage without disagreements would prbably be boring.

Originally posted by moonbus
What a relief. A marriage without disagreements would prbably be boring.

I have heard this before but, while it has a ring of truth about it, I am not convinced. A life that needed to be livened up by things like disagreements with one's spouse would certainly be a boring one though! 😉

Originally posted by FMF
I have heard this before but, while it has a ring of truth about it, I am not convinced. A life that needed to be livened up by things like disagreements with one's spouse would certainly be a boring one though! 😉

The makeup can be pretty good.

Originally posted by FMF
I have heard this before but, while it has a ring of truth about it, I am not convinced. A life that needed to be livened up by things like disagreements with one's spouse would certainly be a boring one though!

I wouldn't disagree with my wife simply to liven things up. What I mean is, I can imagine the following cases in which 2 people could live together for many years and never have a serious disagreement: 1. they have totally congruent interests, in which case they might be either very happy (as Kurt Vonnegut would call it, a "duprass"--Cat's Cradle) or totally bored; or 2. one of them is so submissive as never to dare to speak out; or 3. they don't communicate enough to disagree about anything worth agreeing on. There might be other cases, too, of course, but I have not run ino them.

Originally posted by moonbus
There might be other cases, too, of course, but I have not run ino them.

4. They talk things through, they listen, they don't get upset, they are not insecure, they are not competitive, they don't harbour discontents, they don't have any religious hang ups, sometimes they end up doing it spouse A's way, sometimes they end up doing it spouse B's way, sometimes they do it in a way that neither of them had thought of initially. You've really never run into people other than those in 1-3 in your post?

Originally posted by FMF
4. They talk things through, they listen, they don't get upset, they are not insecure, they are not competitive, they don't harbour discontents, they don't have any religious hang ups, sometimes they end up doing it spouse A's way, sometimes they end up doing it spouse B's way, sometimes they do it in a way that neither of them had thought of initially. You've really never run into people other than those in 1-3 in your post?

May your years together be many and happy !

Originally posted by stellspalfie
nope 'most' (which admittedly is not 'all', but still a huge exaggeration).

so i guess i'll see you in class.

No. Some. I said "some atheists".

I did say "most", but what I said was, "That's what I hate most".

Seriously, learn to read.

Originally posted by Suzianne
No. Some. I said "some atheists".

I did say "most", but what I said was, "That's what I hate most".

Seriously, learn to read.

my apologies. it would appear i made a mistake...(i know, i know...im as shocked as you!!).

Originally posted by vivify

Most of you are probably familiar with the verses that day a woman should submit to her husband "in all subjection", or some variation of that. Do religious people here expect their wives to be completely subjected to them? Any women here expect to obey their husbands in this manner (or already do)? If not, aren't you or your wife disobeying the Word of God?

There is only ONE Person who has ever lived on this earth who was absolutely pleasing to God. This is Jesus Christ.

No, I do not expect my wife to submit to me on her own power any more than if I went out into the street and demanded any random woman on the street do so.

Neither does she expect that I will love her even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for the church. That is the other exhortation to the hussbands in that passage.

On our own "self reform" or "do goodness" we expect none of these exhortations to be carried out either in exercising authority or in exercising submission. But as Christians, in that same book of Ephesians, we expect FIRSTLY to let this Perfect Person Jesus, who is alive and can be known supernaturally NOW, to make His home in our hearts.

"That Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith ..." (3:17)

This is before the exhortations on submission and love in chapter 5.

Paul says by Christ making His home in our hearts ( not sentimentally, but actually and in reality ) we may be "full of strength to apprehend with all the saints ,,, the knowledge surpassing love of Christ, that you may be FILLED unto all the fulness of God." (vs18,19)

This is before the exhortations of chapter 5. We need the Perfect One to be dispensed into our being. We need Christ Who alone is absolute for the will of the Father to fill us, permeate us, and more and more mingle His being with us.

He is able "to do superabundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power which operates in us." (v.20)

So on our own power? No indeed. I do not expect my wife's submission. Nor does she expect me to muster up on my own the ability to -

"Husbands, love your wives even as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her." (5:25)

Now just before the exortations of 5:22 through 6:9 we have this word from the Apostle Paul -

"And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissoluteness, but be filled in spirit ... Being subject to one another in the fear of Christ." (5:18,21)

The follower of Jesus has to open up and be filled with the Spirit of Jesus in his or her human spirit. We must enjoy the sweet filling of the Perfect Person and allow Him to be all that we need. After Paul's exhortation that Christ make His home in our hearts, and we being rooted and grounded in Him and being filled with Him, and enjoying Him as the real sweet heavenly Spirit not unlike the enjoyment of wine, THEN he goes on to talk about the instruction from 5:23 through to 6:4 -

wives to husbands,
husbands to wives,
children to parents,
parents to children,
slaves to masters,
masters to slaves.

The human relationships in this world, even within the surrounding culture, must be empowered by the dispensing of Christ, the available PERFECT Man, into our beings in His form as the Holy Spirit.

He is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or even THINK.

Originally posted by sonship
[quote] Most of you are probably familiar with the verses that day a woman should submit to her husband "in all subjection", or some variation of that. Do religious people here expect their wives to be completely subjected to them? Any women here expect to obey their husbands in this manner (or already do)? If not, aren't you or your wife disobeying the Word ...[text shortened]... rm as the Holy Spirit.

He is able to do superabundantly above all that we ask or even THINK.

In so far as it affects church life and proselytism, what do you make of 1 Timothy 2:12... "Let a woman learn in silence with full submissiveness. I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man, but she is to remain silent." ? Would you be content for your wife to be expected to submit to this restriction?