We have distorted the meanings of “submit” and “respect” by only focusing on the passages that speak to wives. Many passages speaking to “submission” or “respect” also speak to men and husbands.
When Paul tells couples to give their spouses their sexual rights in 1 Corinthians 7 he is not talking about enduring abusive behavior.
Peter’s instructions in 1Pet. 3 are not about how to handle abusive situations, but about a compelling vision for staying faithful to Jesus in anti-Jesus contexts.
“What should submission and respect look like in the context of abuse according to biblical theology?”
Starting this month, Basic Level members are now able to submit questions and access one most a month in which I will answer those questions. I’ll call it the “Your Questions Answered” post. For this month, the question submitted was: “What should I do when I see my parents struggling in their marriage?”
What can women do (or not do) in church? What is their role? Can they speak? Can they lead worship? Can they teach? Can they be pastors? In this Patron-sponsored post, I share three observations from my church experience and scripture about a woman’s role in church.
I suppose it is only fair, after writing about how we men make our wives feel ugly, that I address how women make their husbands feel little. Not because I want to hit women over the head with how they’re failing us husbands. Rather, just as women can feel ugly from small gestures on our part, we sometimes feel little by seemingly innocent actions from them.
In my last post, I talked about nine ways husbands accidentally make their wives feel ugly. Here I’ll share nine ways wives accidentally make their husbands feel little. As a lady wants to feel beautiful and wanted, a man wants to feel capable and needed. These are nine subtle ways wives undermine their husbands.
I’m speaking specifically to Anabaptist churches. Not because they are worse than others and not because they are better. I speak to Anabaptists because I am one. I understand this denomination the most. I feel the frustrations others feel as they work with their Anabaptist brothers and sisters. I value the upbringing and heritage I have been given, as many Anabaptists do.
This generation of Anabaptists wants to know we won’t be written off when we verbalize the frustrations we feel. We want people to care, to invest in us and help us chart an even better course—no matter how good or bad the current one is. But in our ambition for the change we want, I fear we may neglect what we really need.
We don’t need everyone to stay “Anabaptist,” neither do we need everyone to leave. I see at least seven things this generation of Anabaptist really needs.
Author Asher Witmer knows what it’s like to want freedom from sexual sin only to continually fail. We’re often told we need more personal discipline, that we need to think godly things instead of fleshly things.
What if I told you that discipline won’t solve your problem with lust?
Our male sexuality is given by God for advancing beauty and goodness. But somewhere along the line it becomes something that causes devastation and guilt. The good news is we don’t have to live with guilt. In Live Free, Asher Witmer shows us how we can find freedom from sexual sin, live with nothing to hide, and be able to fight for others.
