“Wives, submit to your husbands… for the husband is head of the wife…”. These words are not easy to stomach, are they?

In this message from Ephesians 5, we take time to unpack what these culturally charged words do, and don’t mean. Join us as Lewis Roderick shows us the love Christ has for his church, and how this gospel can radically transform our marriages.

Quotes from the message:

“If trust must be earned, hasn’t God unequivocally earned our trust with the bark on the raw wounds, the thorns pressed into the brow, your name on the cracked lips?”

Ann Voskamp- One Thousand Gifts Devotional Reflections On Finding Everyday Graces

“This headship, then, is most fully embodied not in the husband we should all wish to be but in him whose marriage is most like a crucifixion; whose wife receives most and gives least, is most unworthy of him, is—in her own mere nature—least lovable… [the crown offered to the husband is one] of thorns. The real danger is not that husbands may grasp [it] too eagerly; but that they will allow or compel their wives to usurp it.”

C.S. Lewis- The Four Loves

“Second, you and your spouse should grasp one of the most startling aspects of the biblical teaching on gender roles in marriage. While the principle is clear—that the husband is to be the servant-leader and have ultimate responsibility and authority in the family—the Bible gives almost no details about how that is expressed in concrete behavior. Should wives never work outside the home? Should wives never create culture or be scientists? Should husbands never wash clothes or clean the home? Should women take primary responsibility for daily child care while men oversee the finances? Traditionally minded people are tempted to nod yes to these questions until it is pointed out that nowhere does the Bible say such things. The Scripture does not give us a list of things men and women must and must not do. It gives no such specific directions at all…

What does that mean for us? It means that rigid cultural gender roles have no biblical warrant. Christians cannot make a scriptural case for masculine and feminine stereotypes.”

Kathy Keller- The Meaning of Marriage

“Nowhere is the husband told to make sure his wife submits, and only a tyrannical husband will try. Neither Paul nor Peter writes: Husbands make sure your wife submits.”

Christopher Ash- Married for God: Making Your Marriage The Best It Can Be