God's Outline for the Family

When teaching about the family, the Apostle Paul alludes to the Godhead when helping us understand how a husband and wife are to live in relationship to one another.  In I Cor 11:3 we read, “I want you to understand the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.”    

The Bible teaches here that in the same way that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are equal in essence, so also are men and women created by God equal.  Just as God has different roles and lines of authority, so also does the family that God has created and instituted from the beginning. 

But within our culture over the last 50 years, this idea of different roles and authority as outlined in God’s word has been radically attacked and seen as a form of power and injustice, rather than a form of love patterned after God Himself.   In fact, there is a term that is thrown out today, especially in our universities, Patriarchal Authoritarianism. 

The idea being taught today, especially in the social sciences and humanities of our universities is that many of the woes of our society are rooted in men who have used their authority to abuse and maintain power.   The idea here is very different than what the Bible teaches on how men as fathers can be filled with the virtues of God’s love, kindness, patience, and sacrifice.  We are now being told male leadership and authority are evil. 

In essence, our culture has embraced the idea that if a man aspires to leadership in society or family, he is aspiring towards selfishness and his own will towards power.  So rather than the biblical idea of men leading with God-given attributes like love and sacrifice, a man’s desire for leadership is now seen as self-serving, abusive, and destructive. 

The root of this attack on masculinity comes from our culture’s departure from God’s Word as our guide for family and marriage.  Foundational to this departure are philosophies like Nihilism from Frederick Nietzsche who wrote that Christianity was not from God, but man’s will to power.  Real virtue does not exist, so an all-male hierarchy is an expression of selfishness. 

What is our remedy for all of this confusion that we are faced with as a nation and a culture?  First, we need to rekindle what God’s word teaches about God Himself.  When we do that we will better understand God’s call to fathers, mothers, children, and the family.  And then we need to understand that our families will flourish as we worship God Himself.