Heaven's Point of View

Instructions to Wives, Part 3

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Shelley Quinn (Host), Tom Shepherd

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Series Code: HPOV

Program Code: HPOV000030A


00:16 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn and this is Dr. Tom Sheperd
00:19 from Andrews University Seminary
00:21 where he is the Professor of New Testament Interpretation
00:25 and he's also the Director for the Ph. D. in Religion Program
00:31 as well as the Th. D. in Religion,
00:35 so we're very pleased to have you here,
00:38 and what this series is titled is,
00:40 "Love, Marriage, Sex, and Divorce
00:42 according to the New Testament. "
00:44 This is... as we've said so many times...
00:47 a program that actually...
00:49 a class that you teach at Andrews University
00:52 and we've got a lot to talk about today
00:54 so we're going to hop right into it,
00:56 we've been talking about the instructions to wives
01:01 from Ephesians 5 where Paul was talking about
01:04 "wives submit to your husband as to the Lord,"
01:08 and I would like, first, if you would,
01:12 just, kind of recap what we've talked about
01:14 in case someone has missed it.
01:16 Okay, we notice that in Ephesians 5:21,
01:21 Paul presents his thesis statement
01:22 where he says that you are to submit to one another
01:28 out of reverence for Christ.
01:29 And this becomes the thesis for the entire instruction
01:33 that he gives to the entire Christian family,
01:36 then we notice that he tells wives
01:40 that they are to submit to their own husbands
01:42 we indicated that "submission" does not mean inferiority,
01:46 it does not mean denying any personal relationship.
01:49 It doesn't deny a personal relationship with God,
01:53 and it does not suggest that the person is somehow
01:56 a doormat that people can just walk all over or abuse,
01:59 so, that's not what submission means,
02:01 we found that the focus of submission,
02:05 according to Paul in Ephesians 5 verse 22,
02:08 was to their own husbands, not to other people
02:12 and that the paradigm for submission was
02:14 the wife's submission to Christ.
02:16 We found that the center of power had shifted
02:19 actually from the husband to Christ...
02:22 it's as to the Lord...
02:24 and the wife has a personal relationship with Christ,
02:27 the submission to the Lord teaches how to submit
02:30 but also limits the submission
02:32 to only that which is consistent with the teachings of Christ.
02:36 Amen, I was just going to say,
02:40 so that's basically looking at the thesis statement
02:43 in verse 21 of Ephesians 5, "submit to one another"
02:47 now we've talked about
02:48 wives submitting to your husband as to the Lord,
02:51 that's verse 22,
02:52 so we're ready for verses 23 and 24.
02:54 Is that correct? That's correct.
02:56 So let's read those.
02:57 Ephesians chapter 5 and we look at verse 23,
03:02 "For the husband is head of the wife,
03:05 as also Christ is head of the Church;
03:08 and He is... " He... being Christ...
03:11 "... is the Savior of the body.
03:13 Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ,
03:17 so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. "
03:21 Now, what does Paul mean here by the word "head,"
03:26 husband is the "head" of the wife?
03:28 Well, that's...
03:29 there is a huge fight over this issue actually
03:31 in New Testament Studies and the meaning of that term,
03:34 here we'll notice that the reason why the wife is to submit
03:40 is because the husband is the head of the wife
03:43 but what does that word, "head" mean?
03:46 It seems to... or seems to suggest
03:49 some kind of position of power or leadership,
03:51 but we need to look at this more closely
03:53 since it's a very hot topic, it's disputed a lot,
03:58 the Greek term is, "Kephalé," a term which means
04:03 both literally "head"
04:05 and metaphorically it's used in a variety of ways,
04:10 so Paul uses the term 18 times, so we can...
04:15 we can... you know...
04:16 when you find a passage like this
04:18 and you say, "Well, what does that mean,
04:20 what does he mean by this word, 'head' here?"
04:22 If you go and see the way he uses it in other places,
04:25 that may help you understand how he uses it here,
04:29 okay, so, we want to look at a few of these
04:32 in different places where Paul uses the term
04:35 the first is... the idea of a literal head,
04:39 like the head of your body, like... you know...
04:42 what caps on top of your neck?
04:45 Paul uses this term... we kind of wonder a little bit
04:49 but Paul uses the term over in Romans 12 verse 20,
04:54 if we can just read that verse.
04:55 Certainly, Romans 12 and verse 20,
04:58 "Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him;
05:02 if he is thirsty, give him a drink:
05:04 for in so doing
05:06 you will heap coals of fire on his head. "
05:10 It's an interesting verse isn't it?
05:13 I really wish that everywhere in the world
05:17 where people were fighting,
05:18 that they would do what this verse says.
05:21 "If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
05:24 if he is thirsty, give him something to drink... "
05:27 Now, let me ask you if you've ever heard this
05:30 because I read it somewhere once and I don't know...
05:33 what I... because it used to...
05:35 you know, it almost sounds retributive
05:37 when you're saying that in "subduing"
05:40 you heap coals of fire on his head,
05:42 but what I heard was, during the time,
05:45 that they wore this "thing" on their head
05:47 and if they were in repentance, they put coals on top of the...
05:51 some kind of a platter on their head... and that...
05:54 in other words... by us feeding our enemy
05:57 and giving them a drink,
05:59 that it would cause them to repent.
06:00 Have you ever heard that story?
06:02 I haven't that story but that's an interesting idea,
06:06 I take it here, in terms of "burning coals on their heads,"
06:10 that they'll be ashamed, it's painful when somebody is...
06:17 when you've been mean to them
06:19 and they're nice to you,
06:20 yeah, I'm giving the same kind of idea,
06:22 they're going to repent,
06:24 they're going to change their ways,
06:25 so this may be... it's almost metaphoric
06:27 but it's really, you know, "burning coals on the head,"
06:30 that's like... this is the... your literal head.
06:33 Now, actually, there are a number of times
06:35 that Paul uses it in a literal way...
06:38 is not very common,
06:39 there's another passage that's also
06:41 very challenging to understand over in 1st Corinthians 11
06:46 but Paul talks about...
06:47 a man not wearing something on his head,
06:50 and the wife is supposed to wear something on her head,
06:53 that's a literal head even though in the passage
06:56 sometimes the term is used metaphorically.
06:59 But I wanted to go to some other passages
07:02 that are probably a little more easy to understand and grasp,
07:08 and when we come to the metaphoric use of this term,
07:11 there are three different concepts
07:14 that have been suggested
07:15 as the meaning of the word "head. "
07:19 One is the idea of source or origin
07:23 or even temporal priorities, something that comes earlier,
07:26 so if I said, "That head of the Nile... "
07:29 you're thinking the source... where it begins,
07:34 the head of the Nile, if I...
07:36 the second usage is the concept of something that's preeminent
07:39 or foremost or representative of others,
07:42 if I were to say, "the head of the human race,"
07:46 we think of Adam, he was a representative man,
07:50 he was out there in front of us,
07:52 he's our great grandfather, all right,
07:54 the third term is to have authority over something,
07:58 like if we said, "The Head of the Company
08:00 is coming to our Department today"
08:03 okay, so he has authority over the Company,
08:05 so we have these three different concepts:
08:08 Source, Representative, and Authority.
08:11 So, the question, of course, we have is,
08:14 how does Paul use it in Ephesians 5?
08:17 But we mustn't be in too much of a rush
08:20 to find that,
08:22 we've got to look at how Paul uses it elsewhere,
08:25 and some of the best ways to look at that
08:28 is, "How does he use the term in the book of Ephesians,
08:32 that's our book, and how does he use the term
08:35 in the book of Colossians which is kind of a twin book
08:39 of Ephesians, you read the two books,
08:40 they have a lot in common with one another,
08:43 so we're going to read...
08:45 this is sort of inductive, we're going to start and say,
08:47 "Okay, so... what does this mean?"
08:49 So the first usage we're going to look,
08:51 and if people that are listening or watching,
08:53 have their Bibles, they can open with us
08:56 and follow along, Ephesians 1 verse 22,
09:01 Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 22.
09:04 We're talking about Jesus.
09:05 "And He, Jesus... "
09:07 I'm sorry, that's God...
09:08 and then... Jesus will be the subject...
09:10 Okay, "And He, God, put all things under His feet,
09:13 and gave Him, Christ,
09:15 to be head over all things to the church,
09:18 which is His body,
09:20 the fullness of Him who fills all in all. "
09:23 Okay, so He's the head over all things to the church,
09:28 now, does that sound to you like Source,
09:31 Representative or Authority over all?
09:34 You could almost use all three of these
09:36 but I would say, Authority.
09:38 Yeah, yeah, because He's the Head
09:40 over all things for the church, right?
09:43 Yes.
09:44 And so, it kind of has that sense that goes with it,
09:47 all right, let's go to the next usage which
09:49 is in Ephesians 4 verse 15.
09:52 Ephesians 4 and verse 15,
09:55 "but, speaking the truth in love,
09:59 may grow up in all things into Him
10:03 who is the head... Christ... "
10:05 So that would be the Source?
10:08 Ah, you might take it that way,
10:10 "rather, speaking the truth in love,
10:11 we may grow up into Him in every way
10:13 who is the head," now, if we keep reading,
10:18 keep reading in verse 16,
10:20 "From whom the whole body, joined and knit together
10:23 by whatever joint supplies
10:25 according to the effective working
10:26 by which every part does its share
10:28 causes growth of the body
10:30 for the edifying of itself in love. "
10:33 Hmmm... so that does have that sense of a source,
10:38 that the energy comes from Him,
10:40 but there's a relational kind of concept here,
10:42 it's the head and the body they're linked together
10:45 and it's from the whole,
10:47 from whom the whole body joined together,
10:50 so, "source," I think, is a good choice
10:52 in this particular case,
10:53 now, it's interesting... notice that Paul
10:55 doesn't use the word in the same way... each time.
10:57 Yvonne: Right.
10:59 Sometimes people get the idea, "he uses it this way,
11:01 he always has to use it this way
11:03 it's only used this way. "
11:05 Shelley: Okay. Tom: No...
11:07 You had me worried there for a minute,
11:09 I thought I was wrong when I said, "source," but...
11:11 It's okay to be wrong, when we study the Bible,
11:14 we shouldn't be saying like...
11:15 "You got to see it my way or the highway. "
11:17 Right, right...
11:19 So, we got to think together, all right,
11:20 now, let's turn... this is our passage...
11:22 Ephesians 5:23,
11:23 and this one you don't have to answer yet
11:25 because we'll think... but just read it.
11:27 I can guess what this one is,
11:30 "For the husband is head of the wife,
11:33 as also Christ is head of the church;
11:37 and He is... Christ... is the Savior of the body. "
11:40 Well, the husband is not the source of the wife
11:43 and we know that Christ is the ultimate authority,
11:46 so, he's not the "authority" of the wife,
11:49 but he is the "representative" in the family.
11:51 I think that "representative" is the right choice.
11:53 I would think so.
11:55 All right, let's just hang on to that thought
11:57 because this is text that we're really trying to figure out
11:59 so we won't jump on it too much first,
12:01 we'll kind of get the other ones
12:03 and then we'll come back here okay,
12:05 now, the next usage that we have is found in...
12:09 over in Colossians...
12:10 so there are three, we saw, in Galatians,
12:12 I'm sorry, in Ephesians,
12:14 and now there are three that we'll see in Colossians.
12:16 We'll turn to Colossians 1 verse 18,
12:19 and you'll start to see how these books are
12:21 verily similar to one another.
12:24 Colossians 1 and verse 18.
12:26 Talking about Christ now.
12:28 "And He, Christ, is the head of the body,
12:31 the church, who is the beginning.
12:33 the firstborn from the dead, that in all things
12:37 He may have the preeminence. "
12:39 Okay, what do you think about that one?
12:41 Which one does it suggest, "Source?"
12:43 Well, He's the beginning
12:44 so that would be the "Source," to me, the firstborn.
12:47 He is the Head, He is the beginning,
12:48 the firstborn from the dead,
12:50 and in everything he might have preeminence.
12:52 So that would make Him an Authority then.
12:54 Well, the Representative, preeminent,
12:57 He has foremost location,
12:58 and He's a Representative, so there might be
13:01 some of those ideas,
13:02 now, maybe sometimes you get some mix of ideas here,
13:05 always there's a "Leadership" idea... it seems like.
13:08 Turn to Colossians 2 verse 10.
13:10 Colossians chapter 2 and verse 10,
13:14 "And you are complete in Him,
13:17 who is the head of all principality and power. "
13:22 Okay, what does that sound like?
13:24 Well, I would think it's not "Source," definitely,
13:28 it's not Representative, it's Authority there.
13:31 Yeah, yeah, He's Head overall,
13:33 He's Head of all rule and authority
13:35 so He is above that. Shelley: He's Authority.
13:37 Yeah, this is part of... well Colossians has a big theme
13:43 about Christology and about who Christ is
13:45 and you don't add on to Him,
13:47 if you add on the Jesus you subtract from Him,
13:50 is kind of the message,
13:51 because He's the...
13:53 He's the primary one for us,
13:55 now, the last one there in Colossians
13:57 is in Colossians 2:19.
13:59 Okay, "and not holding fast to the Head,
14:03 being... Jesus... from whom all the body,
14:06 nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments,
14:09 grows with the increase that is from God. "
14:13 Holding fast to the head, the source,
14:17 from whom... that would be "source?"
14:20 Tom: Yeah, very much "source. " Shelley: Okay.
14:22 So now, in some other cases
14:24 we might not always be able to nail it down particularly,
14:28 but probably, most often we can,
14:30 and here's the interesting thing,
14:32 we've looked at six different verses,
14:35 three in Ephesians, three in Colossians,
14:38 does he ever use the word to mean, "source?"
14:41 Shelley: Yes. Tom: Yes.
14:43 Does he ever use the word to mean, "representative?"
14:45 Shelley: Yes. Tom: Yes.
14:48 Does he ever use the word to mean, "authority?"
14:53 Shelley: Yes. Tom: Yes.
14:54 Yeah, so, he uses the word all three ways.
14:57 Shelley: okay.
14:59 It comes out in all three ways,
15:00 so, there are phrases in the context
15:05 that actually help us to recognize
15:09 which of these meanings the Apostle has in mind.
15:12 And that's why it's so important
15:14 to always take things in context.
15:16 Yeah, when you come across a challenging text,
15:20 I don't call them "problem texts,"
15:23 I ask my students sometimes I'll say,
15:27 "How many 'problem texts' are there in the Bible?"
15:28 Shelley: You always get it, don't you, the answer is zero.
15:32 Tom: The answer is zero. Shelley: Okay.
15:34 There are no "problem texts" in the Bible
15:35 because the Bible text,
15:37 the text in Scriptures is not the problem.
15:39 The problem is our understanding of it, right,
15:42 and so, but when you have a one
15:44 that you're really challenged to understand,
15:47 what you do is, you read the context
15:49 that's the words around it
15:50 and you look for relationships between the words
15:53 and here we notice
15:54 some of these relationships between the words.
15:56 Right, "from whom," definitely lets you know
15:59 that it's the "source. "
16:00 Yeah, yeah, when it says, "He is head over all things,"
16:04 Ephesians 1 verse 22... Shelley: Authority?
16:06 Yeah, authority... rule and authority,
16:09 clearly that's the idea.
16:10 When it says that Christ is the Head of the Church,
16:14 it makes you think,
16:16 it might make you think of source,
16:17 but also... Shelley: It suggests authority?
16:20 Yeah, it suggests that
16:21 but then there's a relational authority
16:23 because it's the body.
16:25 Shelley: So "representative. " Tom: Yeah he represents the body
16:27 he's the Head... he would say,
16:29 we said, "He's the Head of the Church"
16:30 I think that one is the most difficult for me
16:33 because, like I said, "It could be all three. "
16:35 Yeah, it's a little bit, it's a little bit nuanced
16:37 in between there, but when we say,
16:39 "He is the Head from whom the body is nourished,"
16:41 then we think of "source," yeah, everything comes from Him.
16:45 All right, so, now that brings us back,
16:49 that brings us back to Ephesians 5 verse 23
16:53 and with those three ideas in mind,
16:56 of Source, of Representative and of Authority over...
17:02 now we'll read verse... verse 20,
17:06 well, let's read 22 and 23.
17:09 And see, I jumped the gun a while ago,
17:10 but I still believe the same thing.
17:12 Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22, it says,
17:16 "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
17:20 For the husband is head of the wife,
17:22 as also Christ is head of the church:
17:25 and He Christ is the Savior of the body. "
17:28 So, here it says that the husband is head of the wife,
17:33 he's not the "source,"
17:35 there's not "source" language in here,
17:37 it doesn't show that he is over her,
17:40 that doesn't show, like, an "authority,"
17:42 so it would be a "representative" of the family,
17:45 he's the representative is how I would read it.
17:49 Yeah, and if you look at...
17:50 the husband is compared to Christ,
17:53 he isn't Christ, but he is compared to Christ
17:56 he says, "as Christ is head of the church: his body. "
18:00 So, that's the kind of relational concept
18:04 of representation and linkage that goes on here
18:07 and so, yeah, "representative" makes sense,
18:11 so, in that kind of a sense, what we would say is
18:14 that he is like, "Head of household,"
18:16 he represents the household in the sense of
18:20 "one who represents them to other people
18:23 or to the world or in relationships. "
18:26 So the husband is not "head," in the Greco-Roman sense,
18:31 Paul has shifted from a Greco-Roman sense of
18:33 the "Pater familias," who had almost unlimited authority,
18:37 that would be "authority over,"
18:38 Paul shifts it to more, perhaps, a relational idea
18:41 where the husband represents... but he's tied to the family.
18:45 And so, it's this priestly-type function in a way
18:50 that the husband is... I think of Job
18:54 and how he prayed for his family members
18:58 and this is something that there is that
19:01 I guess, responsibility and accountability to the Lord,
19:06 Tom: Yeah. Shelley: You agree?
19:08 Tom: Oh Yes, and we will see as we talk about...
19:11 we'll come, next time, to the discussion with husbands
19:13 and how they are to fill their role of Leadership
19:16 and it's not the kind of controlling thing
19:19 that sometimes, people get the idea of.
19:22 Here the paradigm for the husband is Christ.
19:25 Christ is the paradigm,
19:27 the Christian family cannot have a human representative
19:31 who is unlike Christ, who doesn't follow Christ's lead
19:36 so if he's acting in a way that's not like Christ,
19:39 he's not really acting like the head of the family.
19:42 And so, when we think about it, Christ is our advocate,
19:46 Christ is interceding for us all times
19:49 so, Christ is the lover of our souls
19:53 so the husband is to love and protect the family,
19:57 the wife and the children
19:59 just as Christ loves and protects the church.
20:02 Yes, yes, now notice that Jesus as
20:05 Head of the Church has a purpose,
20:08 and his purpose is to be the Savior of the body,
20:12 now, Paul intermingles here talking about the Christian home
20:17 and we'll see it more and more as we go on in this passage
20:21 when we specially get to the section on the husbands,
20:24 it's almost as though he forgets talking about the home
20:27 and starts talking about Ecclesiology,
20:28 that is, the doctrine of the church
20:30 and here he describes Christ as the Savior of the body.
20:36 Christ is the Savior of the Church.
20:39 But we should notice the distinction
20:42 between Jesus and the husband.
20:45 The husband is never called the savior of the wife.
20:49 Shelley: Right.
20:50 There's one Savior. and that Savior is Jesus,
20:53 okay, so the husband is never called the Savior
20:56 nor is the wife called the husband's body
21:00 as Christ, the Church is Christ's body
21:03 but the wife is not the husband's body,
21:07 so there is... there's a distinction between
21:09 there are limits to the identification
21:12 or parallel with Jesus.
21:13 The husband is not Jesus. Shelley: Amen.
21:18 And again, you know, when things are done
21:23 in the order that God created
21:25 and in the manner in which he has put into practice here,
21:30 it makes all of these relational positions very easy to follow,
21:36 it's easy to be submissive again to someone who...
21:39 to a husband who is doing things in God's way.
21:42 Yeah, he... like I said before, he takes and he turns things,
21:48 he changes things, he changes the power structures,
21:51 and really... puts everything in relationship to Christ.
21:55 So, you might think that in the Greco-Roman world
21:59 there was the husband, who was here on top,
22:01 and everybody was below him,
22:03 now, the husband is brought
22:06 into... He has a relationship with Christ
22:08 but so do all the members of the family.
22:10 They also have a relationship with Christ.
22:12 Shelley: They're all co-heirs.
22:13 Yeah, as long as the husband does what he's supposed to do,
22:16 that's fine, but when he steps away from that
22:20 when he becomes abusive, when he becomes controlling,
22:22 then the other members of the family
22:25 cannot follow his lead. Shelley: Yes.
22:28 They cannot follow in that kind of a pattern
22:31 and as Peter said to the religious leaders,
22:33 we must obey God rather than men.
22:36 Shelley: Yes.
22:37 Yeah, so now that brings us back to verse 24,
22:40 This is Ephesians chapter 5 verse 24,
22:45 "Therefore just as the church is subject to Christ,
22:48 so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. "
22:53 Now how does yours read in the...
22:55 Well, mine says, "Now as the church submits to Christ,
22:58 so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. "
23:01 Shelley: Okay.
23:03 But actually this word now, what does yours say?
23:06 Mine says, "Therefore. "
23:07 "Therefore," actually there's a word there
23:10 that can be translated to do that, "But... "
23:11 Shelley: Okay.
23:13 So it kind of presents a contrast,
23:16 we could translate it this way,
23:18 "But just as the church is subject to Christ,
23:21 so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. "
23:26 The "But" suggests a contrast, it may be included to suggest
23:31 that the husband is not exactly like Christ
23:35 as we already noted,
23:37 the husband is not the Savior of the wife,
23:39 he's not the... he's the head but she's not the body,
23:42 so Paul reiterates his call for submission
23:45 and describes its extent in verse 24,
23:49 he says, "in everything. "
23:50 Now, "everything" means everything but...
23:55 it doesn't mean everything, in the sense that
23:59 if a husband steps away from the line
24:02 from which God has asked him to be a Leader
24:05 and starts doing things that are out of line,
24:08 with what God calls, you're not to submit to that.
24:10 You're not to submit to that which is abusive,
24:13 you're not to submit to that which goes against Scripture,
24:15 because everybody in the family,
24:18 has an individual and personal relationship with God.
24:22 God is the Supreme Head, there is one Head of the Church,
24:25 and that Head is Christ.
24:26 And you know, in my way of thinking,
24:29 and tell me if you think I'm right,
24:32 there are so many Scriptures in the New Testament,
24:34 that imply "equality," that,
24:40 I think that God made the husband, "head,"
24:44 as representative and also...
24:47 I look at it as he's a "Tie-breaker,"
24:49 in other words when you think about Christ,
24:51 Christ doesn't control us,
24:53 the husband isn't to control the wife,
24:55 but there is that "Leadership," in our home,
24:59 there are decisions that I make that my husband allows,
25:03 you know, he has no interest in it,
25:04 he could care less,
25:06 there are decisions that he makes that I don't care about,
25:09 when there is a decision that we both have input on,
25:11 we will sit down and discuss it, and reason it,
25:14 now, if we got to that place where there's an impasse,
25:19 then, I would submit, finally, if he were to say...
25:23 I mean, we would sit and reason it,
25:24 but it's not, you know, and I would submit to say,
25:27 "Okay, you're the head of the house,
25:29 it's on you buddy," no...
25:32 No, what I'm saying is that,
25:34 I think I said this on an earlier Program,
25:38 "Any animal that has two heads is a freak,"
25:41 and so in a marriage, if there are two heads,
25:44 it's not... God did this for some practical reasons.
25:47 Yeah, I agree with you that you reason things together,
25:50 you think things through,
25:52 you pray about it together, you talk about it together,
25:54 and actually if the husband is trying to do
25:57 what blesses the wife,
25:58 and the wife is trying to do what blesses the husband,
26:01 it's not hard, they come to some conclusion.
26:04 I like the idea of a tie-breaker like a decision maker
26:07 but if you're making decisions to bless the other people,
26:10 it's not hard to submit to that.
26:12 One of the texts that you were kind of referring to about
26:15 equality is in Galatians 3:27 and 28,
26:20 "For as of you as were baptized into Christ
26:22 and have put on Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek,
26:24 there is neither slave nor free, there is no male nor female:
26:28 for you are all one in Christ Jesus. "
26:30 Shelley: Right. Tom: So, we're all one in Christ
26:33 it's very interesting that the same person who can write
26:36 Ephesians 5, is the same person who wrote Galatians 3
26:39 and we have to put the two together.
26:42 I'm always kind of disappointed
26:44 when people who take one side or another,
26:46 in some of these questions about male and female relationships
26:50 when they want to just focus on one passage
26:52 and they don't want to read all of them.
26:54 We have to read all of them
26:55 and Paul is saying that we're all equal,
26:58 but while we're all equal,
27:00 there are also different roles that we have.
27:01 He doesn't do away with our equality
27:04 or the importance of sharing... caring for one another
27:08 and being respectful of each other.
27:10 Amen... and I just...
27:12 I'm very excited about this entire series
27:15 and I can't wait to hear...
27:17 I know that J.D. is going to be...
27:18 We're going to be talking about
27:20 what God has to say to husbands.
27:21 J.D. is going to be co-hosting with you for the next few
27:23 to talk about what God has to say to husbands
27:26 and once again, Tom, the time has just flown
27:28 but that shows me how interesting it is
27:30 and I just thank you so much for being here
27:32 and thank you for bringing your
27:35 studies to us on this topic. Tom: Hmmm... hmmm...
27:41 For those of you at home,
27:42 I hope that you are having a wonderful time
27:45 listening to this and learning from it
27:47 and applying it to your life
27:49 because God has a plan for every life,
27:52 and He has the perfect pattern as well
27:55 and when it is followed,
27:57 you can count on many, many blessings.
27:59 Now, our prayer for you is that God will multiply His mercy,
28:04 His love and His grace to you.


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Revised 2016-03-29