“For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her”. (Ephesians 5:22-25)
A strong husband has to know that God has placed him in the position of leadership in the marriage, to be the head of a woman as Christ is the head of the Church (1 Cor 11:3). Unfortunately the culture of our day has taken this biblical principle of headship and given it a negative connotation.
Images from the world suggest that a strong husband should subject his wife to his will and make every decision in the family without input and that the wife has no authority. Other examples from the world suggest the opposite response, to ignore this God given responsibility hoping for the best or simply believing this is how it should be. Even some Christian men misunderstand what this headship is all about and read Ephesians 5:23-24 without remembering the context offered in Ephesians 5:25; “that as husbands we are head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church”, we get that part but need to get the importance of vs. 25, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for her”. This is the better way, to follow God’s plan. (Eph 5:1-2)
It is this loving, giving attitude and purpose that we are to lead with, not of dominance or overbearing. Husbands are to act from a position of love with concern for the well being of our wife and family. Christ loves us, the Church, His bride so much that He lay down His life for us that we might have everlasting life (John 3:16),
a life with Him(Matt 14:3), as co-heirs (Romans 8: 17); this is our proper example.
As the head of our home, the strong husband is to follow Christ’s example (1 Corinthians 11). Christ came to this earth, giving up his royal throne to offer himself a sacrifice for us, He loved us first and was so committed to us that He was willing to give up his power and lived fully as a man(John 3:15-17). He served and taught His disciples and in turn us the importance of being a servant leader. He came to us knowing full well what lay in store for him, the rejection, abuse, torture and death that had to come to fulfill God’s plan of salvation. We in turn should begin today and commit to this level of servant hood in the headship of our homes. Being a strong husband means following after Christ, a full understanding that marriage will not always be easy but we are to provide direction and teach our family to follow Christ. We are to treat our wives as Christ treats us, as co-heirs and be willing to lay aside our needs for theirs.
God has placed us in the position of leader in the marriage; this is not a choice we can hand over or ignore. Our choice is to lead by Christ’s example or the worlds.
A strong husband follows hard after Christ.
