Queen's Road Cell

We finished up the questions for Study 54 and reviewed the material we covered last week. I was asking how is it that nobody quoted Jn 14:28 at me when I asserted last week that all the three Persons of the Trinity were equally great, equally glorious and equally to be worshipped. Jesus clearly stated here that His Father was greater than He. One explanation of this is that Jesus emptied himself of glory (Phil 2:6) in the Incarnation, but this is insufficient to account that from all eternity Jesus is the Lamb slain for sinners (Rev 13:8, Eph 1:4-14), sent by the Father into the world. So 'greater' here is 'greater in authority', whereas it can be said that the Son is 'greater in submission'. We explored the fact that Christian couples are to submit to the Lordship of Christ in their marriages even though there are many difficulties in practice that are likely to arise. This will be marked especially when a wife is unsubmissive, or a husband unloving, or the...

Ephesians 5:21 "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ" is followed by three examples of submission: of wives to husbands (5:22), children to parents (6:1) and bondservants to masters (6:5). The presence of three examples points out the fact that mutual submission is not primarily in view in these verses. Husbands to not primarily submit to wives, just as parents do not primarily submit to children and masters, to bondservants. In each example here Paul gives injunctions to the party being submitted to, so that there is  reassurance to those who are doing the submitting. Husbands must love their wives (5:25). Fathers must not provoke their children to anger (6:4), and masters must not threaten their bondservants (6:9). There is thus a complementarity in relationships, rather than a sameness/symmetry in how we relate to one another. This comes into sharpest focus when we consider the institution of Christian marriage. I said that Christian marriage is the uni...

Shaun and Wen Ai celebrated 8 years of their knowing one another and 4 years of marriage recently with a nice wagyu dinner! They shared how they still found marriage fun. Despite arguments they maintain their happy state by guarding mutual dignity even in the midst of arguments, not directing attacks personally, and learning how to love one another not to hurt each other even when hurting. They try to set out their personal opinions and hurts in the correct framework and context. We had a short discussion on relationships and submission in the context of a Christian marriage. Wen Ai said that we needed to teach our girls what to look for in a husband - they need not just to find someone whom they can love, but respect as well. We said that the submission that Ephesian 5 calls wives to give is not a sign of inferiority, but of role. The husband cannot demand submission in such a way that wives sin. The wife must render submission to Christ above submission to the husband, although th...