For many years people have falsely taught that the head covering for a woman as mentioned in Corinthians was a symbol to show a wife's submission to her husband. This is not the truth.
The head covering mentioned in Corinthians was a symbol that the woman was representative of the church and the man who was to be uncovered was representative of Christ.
This is just one example of misunderstandings that have come about because men who translated the English Bibles were translating according to their own Western mindset rather than what God actually said.
The man is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church. Christ led by teaching, nurturing, and love not by force or intimidation. Christ died for mankind so that He might build His church.
When a man sees his wife as nothing more than someone to be bossed, used and treated with disrespect he is violating the scripture in which God tells him to cherish, protect and love his wife as Christ did for His church.
Ephesians 5:24-26 "…24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her 26to sanctify her, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word,…"
Ephesians 5:2
"and walk in love, just as Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us as a fragrant sacrificial offering to God."
Ephesians 5:24
"Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything."
Ephesians 5:28
"In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."
Ephesians 5:33
"Nevertheless, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband."
Colossians 3:19
"Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them."
1 Peter 3:7
"Husbands, in the same way, treat your wives with consideration as a delicate vessel, and with honor as fellow heirs of the gracious gift of life, so that your prayers will not be hindered."
Everyone is to submit to everyone else, we are called to be cooperative with one another so that everyone is treated with honor and respect.
Christ is the head of the church and what did He do for us?!!!!
He died for us, and provided protection for us. He told the truth and deferred to others continually. He even obeyed His mother when He was a man when she told Him to make wine. John 2 And, He washed the feet of others to show His purpose on earth was to serve.
He served the first time He came, the second time He comes He will rule over the entire earth.
When God said in Genesis that the woman's desire will be to rule over her husband but her husband will rule over her, God was not saying it was good for the husband to rule over his wife or that she should rule over her husband. He was saying this was a sinful condition of the fall of man after sin came into the world.
A Christian marriage in which the husband is the head and leads by his service should not remotely resemble the condition of the marriage after the fall. The marriage is redeemed from that mess in the fall, to something much more beautiful and precious as the man protects and serves his wife and she submits to his godly leadership.
Everything is a choice not a reluctant action. Man is to choose to lead and serve and the woman is to choose to freely counsel her husband as the helpmate.
Leading does not have to do with a man just getting his way to dominate a woman, this is worldly and ungodly. A woman is not to intimidate a man into doing what he should do, she is to do her own part and he is to do his own part as given to each of them by God.
No one forces, intimidates, mocks or ridicules the other, they encourage the roles God has given them by trusting God to work in one another.
When scripture is taken out of context and those who enforce rules do not seek God we have continual frustration and problems that need not be.
When we trust Christ we need not attempt to shape others into what we think they should be, we lovingly and graciously allow people to be led by the Holy Spirit His way.
Proverbs 4:23
"23 Watch over your heart with all diligence,
For from it flow the springs of life."
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