coatta@cs.ubc.ca (Terry Coatta) (09/01/89)
Re: Christian Marriage Geoff Allen writes: >I think Paul's summary in Eph. 5:32 helps to put it into perspective: >"However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, >and the wife must respect her husband." (NIV) The husband is the >leader, but he should always have his wife's best interests in mind. >And the wife should have respect for her husband's leadership. I suppose this is fine from a theoretical point of view, but it hardly does much to deal with the problem that originally started this discussion, namely a husband and wife disagreeing about some matter and wondering if the ``correct'' thing to do was for the wife to submit to the husband's point of view. How many husbands do you know that love their wives as Christ loved the Church. I don't think myself a slouch as a husband, and yet there's no way I come even close to living up to this ideal. And given that, how is my wife, or the wife of anyone else for that matter, to know when the husband is looking out for the wife's best interest? Perhaps the stress of the siutation (and we are talking about stressful situations here I think) has made him a little self-centered. An even more fundamental question that I find myself faced with in the light of this discussion is: How do I know what is in my wife's best interest? This makes it seem as though her competence as a human being is in doubt -- after all the assumption seems to be that the husband knows whats in the best interest of the wife to a greater degree than the wife herself. Terry Coatta Dept. of Computer Science, UBC, Vancouver BC, Canada coatta@cs.ubc.cdn `What I lack in intelligence, I more than compensate for with stupidity'