LBoogie wrote:
> A question came up in Bible study concerning the application of 1Pe
3:1-6.
>
> The passage is clear that God's will for women is to submit to her
> husband.  Woman of faith are known and commended for their submission
to
> their husband.
>
> However, what if the husband tells his wife not to tithe and the wife

> feel that God's will for her is that she must tithe.  Whose will
should
> she follow?

I remember this being discussed in one of the theology classes.  It
really has to do with ethics.  "If a husband asks his wife to be
involved in an unethical situation, is she required to submit?"

I think one of the ways that we can address this implied dilemma is to
remember first, that husband and wife are reflections of the
relationship found within the Trinity itself.  The Son states, "I have
come to do My Father's will."  However, in this relationship, it would
be blasphmous to think that the Father would ever ask the Son to do
anything which was contrary to their essential nature.

And thus it is with the husband and wife.  They ARE equal but they hold
different offices.  The office of the wife, like the Son during His
first advent on earth, is subordinate.  But just as we see played out
in the business world or in the military world (this was played out in
that movie with Tom Cruise as a military lawyer, "You can't handle the
truth!"), being subordinate does relieve us of all responsibility and
in the end, accountability.  Again, this issue is ethical in nature.
The subordinate still retains all the dignity afforded to them by being
created in the image of God.  They are still held accountable to that
fact.  Therefore when a husband seeks for his wife to do a thing
contrary to the revealed nature of God (the standard of all rule), she
has every right and even responsibility to refuse.  Now how she refuses
must not be dismissed, but the issue is whether or not she is somehow
relieved from having to think for herself when her husband commands
something of her.  And the answer to that is patentedly not.

There are so many sad, horrible stories which surround this issue.  I
know of one woman who was saved and her unsaved husband knew enough of
what the bible taught that he took advantage of her to the point that
he required her to enter the life of "swinging."  Now before being a
Christian, she had denied him this and even separated for a time.  But,
for whatever reason, once she became a Christian and thought that to be
a good Christian she must obey her husband, she began to submit herself
to the swinger lifestyle.  Though I was completely taken back by her
confession of this, it made me realize just how painful it had been for
her.  Who bore the accountability factor?  She was definitely grieved
by this.  But I do not believe she will be condemned for it in heaven.
But on the otherside of the coin, I don't believe she will receive any
rewards for so submitting to her husband.  It will be as much a "blank"
spot in her life in regards to rewards as was her life prior to
salvation.

I think this is an important point.  When we see someone very late on
in years come to a saving faith in Christ, we recognize along with them
that all that took place prior to that moment of confess is a sheer
waste, a nothingness before God.  A wasted life.  But we must be fair
looking back over our own lives since being saved, and admit that there
are large chunkes of our Christian lives that are a nothingness before
God -even reliegious things.

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