Woman-Liberating Love, Part 2: The "S" Word

Love is...

... woman liberating.

When people in our culture look at the Bible, they tend to think it is oppressive toward women.  But in order to believe that, they have to leave out at least one-half of the picture.  Sure, the Bible says, "Wives, submit to your husbands as unto the Lord" (Ephesians 5:22).  Notice that it does not say, "Women, submit to men."  No, women are not under the authority of men.  A particular woman is under the authority of her particular husband only.  But I'm not really going to focus on that in this post.

Many people get wrapped around the axle over the "s" word (submission).  What they fail to notice is what comes directly after this command in that passage.  Ephesians 5:25, 28-29:

"Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...."

"...husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.  After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church...."

See what happens here?  Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loves the church.  And just how does Christ love the church?  By dying for her.  Simply stated, husbands are supposed to love their wives so well that they are eager and willing to die for her.  A godly husband who lives this out is so concerned for his wife's welfare that he is always seeking her best interests.  He is always seeking to die to himself, i.e., to live selflessly, serving her, not as a weak man, but as one who is confident and strong and seeks her good in all that he does.

[As an aside:  The opposite of this is a man who lords his authority over his wife, commanding her to submit to him no matter how selfishly he may deal with her.  This is never acceptable in God's sight.]

So, how is this liberating for women?  I mean, a wife still has to submit to her husband, right?  And how is she liberated if she is under someone else's authority?  Well, she is liberated in the sense that the burden of responsibility is not hers to bear.  Her husband is the one who bears that burden.  When God looks down on a household and sees that a wife is in distress and the children are unruly, He sees the husband/father as responsible for that.

This isn't to say that wives are not responsible for anything.  However, a wife is responsible only for those things which Scripture says she must do, namely, loving and serving God, respecting her husband, loving her children, and managing her household well.

Feminism, on the other hand, takes a wife's already challenging tasks and lays the husband's responsibilities on top of them, leaving the men not responsible for anything.  Now, that is slavery.

Love is woman liberating.