A View of Marriage for the Church; Position

The rules of husband and wives within the marriage relationship have become marred over time. In its original context, the Bible makes clear how the marriage relationship should function. Since the time of Paul’s writings marriage has changed because it has taken a step away in the wrong direction from the foundation that Paul laid out in his letters. Paul meant for the husband to be the loving head of the wife, and the wife to submit to the loving husband.

Paul’s original meaning in these verses is clear. He sets up a simple hierarchy for the marriage with the “the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church” (Ephesians 5:23) with the wives should submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:24) because the husband loves their wife (Ephesians 5:28). This hierarchy is what Paul laid out for the early church in Ephesus and many other areas. The structure was to parallel that of Christ’s relationship to his church. The debate comes down to whether this passage is applicable to today’s society or was writing to the early churches for a specific reason.

Those who say that the passages on the marriage structure are not applicable in today’s society do so on the basses of several other New Testament passages and the idea that the passages that address marriage are mainly cultural. The main verse to defend this point of view is Galatians 3:28 where it states “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” This verse is used to show that Christ Jesus does not make a distinction between male and female thus to have the male as the head over the women would be a contradiction to this verse. The proponents of this view put far more weight in the verse in Galatians than in the other verses throughout the New Testament. They view this verse as an equalizer for all people in all times that we are all the same when it comes to the view of Christ. This group also gains support by viewing several of the books as merely cultural. They diffuse first Timothy by saying it was written for a specific purpose, that the women of the church were creating problems by allowing false prophets to stay in their homes and preach. The idea is that since there were women who were creating issues that something needed to be done and so Paul solved the problem by preventing women from holding leadership positions. This group sees the verses that restrict women from taking certain roles during worship as cultural. They would say since women did not have as many rights as men during the time of Paul that they would logically have less rights than men during worship, and would remain silent during worship to show their respect. They also argue that the passages like 1 Corinthians 14:34-35 were written to address a specific problem, much like the passage in 1 Timothy. The problem is often said to be that the women in the church in Corinth were talking excessively during worship and disrupting the proceedings and therefore Paul needed to assert his authority so that the worship services could proceed as needed, without excessive talking. They interpret 1 Corinthians 11:3-13 to be cultural too. Their argument is based on the idea that if women were to let her hair down it is seen as a proposition to have sex or prostitution. Paul’s warning saying “But every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered dishonors her head, for that is one and the same as if her head were shaved,” is warning against a display that could be considered prostitution. The culture viewpoint looks at this situation more from the culture of the time then through what the Bible is directly saying.

The other view takes a more scriptural approach than the cultural view and works with the evidence presented in scripture. This view says that since the Bible says that men to be “the head of the wife” (Ephesians 5:23), that this is still applicable today. This view is supported across the New Testament cannon. The evidence is drawn from many of Paul’s letters. Including 1 Corinthians, Ephesians, and his pastoral letters. The amount of times Paul address the issue of husbands and wives, or women in worship stresses the importance of the issue to the church. If the issue were only important to people within a specific city it would not have appeared several times throughout the New Testament. The mere fact that it is several of Paul’s letters means that it was an area that Paul found important enough to address to several audiences. The reason that this subject does not appear in every letter is because if a church was not struggling with the issue than Paul would have had no need to address it to them.

Several ideas can be drawn from both viewpoints to come up with an accurate representation of how to apply the passages to today’s church. The concept of respect in worship can be taken from the cultural view. This can be taken to mean that certain measures may be necessary in order to provide a good worship environment. In the case of women reaming silent during worship, this was to provide a proper worship environment. There are any number of issues this can be replaced with today, loud children, distracting environment, and many others. The issue of women praying with their hair covered is commonly taken to mean that proper dress is necessary to help provide a proper worship environment. Women should not wear clothes that are distracting by revealing too much skin. Likewise, a mall should also be properly dressed as to not distract the women. However the issue still remains of who should lead the marriage. This is the area of biggest disagreement.

I feel the bible is clear in its assertions about the marriage relationship. Several times, Paul states and reinforces that husbands are to love their wives and the wives are to submit to their husbands. This idea is in several of Paul’s letters, and supported by several of his other letters. It is clear that in the church that a woman is not to have authority over a man (1 Timothy 2:12). It is logical to state that this hierarchy would continue into the marriage relationship. The same thing could be said in the opposite direction, that if women are to submit to her husband at home she should not have authority over him in the church. These ideas enforce each other and the idea that the husband is the head of the marriage. If this were not an important issue that was eternally significant then it would not have been addressed in four of Paul’s letters, 1 Corinthians, Colossians, 1 timothy, and Titus. The mere fact that is repeated several times within the four letters gives even more credibility to the issue. With the exception of Colossians, each of the four letters addresses the issue at least twice, further leading to the ideas credibility and significance in today’s society.

The issue of the view of marriage within the church depends on how the problem is approached. Ideas can be taken from both views to begin to form a general sense of behavior, but the roles of husband and wives within marriage are not as easy to handle as those of behavior within the church. Even though there is disagreement, there are areas that are agreed upon. The unity of ideas should be used and is just as important as the disagreements presented by the interpretation of the texts. These verses also influence how people view women in the ministry, women’s roles in the home, and women’s roles outside of the home. While this issue is influential it is not paramount to an understanding of the Christian faith.