Quote:
Originally Posted by Sons to Glory!
This household order is the Lord, then the husband/father, then the wife/mother, then the children. Again, this order is set by Him so that everyone in the household gets supplied with what they need, in an administration of love, caring (and yes, accountability). We can "kick against the goads" of this, but we will likely get hurt in the process!
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I get this a lot in the fundamentalist Christian circles in which I swim, but I see it differently. I see the "women should submit themselves" to be in the same class as "slaves, obey your masters". Paul was writing in the context of his times. As the NT was being composed, Christians were no longer under religious compunctions. The only law was love. Love is the end of the law.
So what happens? People start to get wild. Women and children start to sass. Slaves say, "Hey, man, I'm free in Jesus Christ. Don't tell me what to do." Paul was saying, Remember the society in which you live and obey its constraints. We are still Greeks and Jews outwardly, still women and men, still slave and free. Don't take your freedom in Christ Jesus as an excuse to disorder.
Galatians 5:13 "You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love."
Cf: 1 Cor 8:9 "Be careful, however, that the exercise of your rights does not become a stumbling block to the weak."
And 1 Cor 9:19 "Though I am free of obligation to anyone, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible."
Similar, Paul's
"Women will be saved by child-bearing" doesn't mean that this is their path to salvation, but that the circumstance of being a mother, caring for a drooling and pooping infant will give them the opportunity to unselfishly love others, and not just care for their own things.
Similar to being a husband to a wife, or father of children. Or, if you're a slave, to be subject to an earthly master because there is one Master in heaven, and he put you in that spot. So serve Him with fear, as you accept your earthly role. Imagine if your master's a drunken lout, and you're a pious sober Christian. Yet, because of God's sovereign arrangement, you have to be subject to this one. Find God in your circumstances.
Back then, women couldn't vote, couldn't drive carriages around etc. They were less than the men, in society. Paul said, Accept that. You are great in the kingdom. If you're nothing on earth, so what.
(And they never got this simple point, in the LC. There, it was all about being a respecter of persons. Women were "great" when Nee needed to leverage them. Ruth Lee, Peace Wang, Margaret Barber - lionesses of recovery.... then the worm turned, and 1 Tim 2 was invoked. What a ridiculous travesty. In the LC - Witness Lee was truly, transcendently great. Everyone else's greatness, or social position, was referent, or relative, to that singular point. Similarly, if you got into Harvard or Stanford you were on your way to greatness. Etc, etc. It was all about outward position. Either your place near Lee or your place in society.)
Paul and Jesus were very much alike in this manner - outward position was nothing. In fact it could be a terrible stumbling if one wasn't very careful.