St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians Part 13

DIVISION II. -- 5. CHAPTERS V. 22-VI. 9.

_The relation of husbands and wives: parents and children: masters and servants._

[Sidenote: _The law of subordination_]

St. Paul mentions submission as required, in a sense, from all Christians towards all others--'submitting yourselves one to another.'

But it is plain that in any community, and most of all in a Christian community where order is a divine principle, some will be specially 'under authority': and accordingly St. Paul applies his general maxim to three cla.s.ses in particular--wives towards their husbands, children towards their parents, slaves towards their masters. But in making these applications of the law of obedience, he enlarges his subject by including the counter-balancing principle of the duty of self-sacrificing love on the part of those in authority; so that he treats not one side of the relation only but both.

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A. HUSBANDS AND WIVES. (V. 22-33.)

[Sidenote: _Husbands and wives_]

Wives are to be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. Just as the divine fatherhood is the ground of all lower fatherhood, so the authority of the one great Head is the ground in all lower heads.h.i.+ps, and each in its place is to be accepted as the shadow of His. Thus the husband's heads.h.i.+p over his wife is the shadow of Christ's heads.h.i.+p over the church, and that explains of what sort the husband's authority should be. For Christ's rule is a rule for the advantage of the ruled.

He rules the church as Himself its saviour or deliverer from bondage, and the word 'saviour' is full of a.s.sociations of self-sacrificing love. So must it be with a Christian husband. But Christ is not merely a head to the church. He too is a husband. This idea of G.o.d as the husband of His people--an idea which expressed both His choice of them, His love for them, and His jealous claim upon them--is familiar in the Old Testament. 'Thy Maker is thy husband.' 'I am a husband unto you, saith the Lord[1].' And it is probable, as Dr. Cheyne suggests, 'that the so-called Song of Solomon was admitted into the canon {213} on the ground that the bride of the poem symbolized the chosen people[2].' But in a Christian sense the idea gains a fresh meaning. 'We that are joined unto the Lord are of one spirit' with Him[3]. We are the 'members of his body'; and, as drawing our life from His manhood, we may be even said to be, like Eve from Adam, 'of his flesh and of his bones[4].' Christ then is, in this richness of meaning, the husband of the church.

St. Paul seems further to describe this relation of Christ to the church under the figure of three marriage customs. The husband first acquires the object of his affection as his bride by a dowry: then by a bath of purification the bride is prepared for the husband: finally she is presented to him in bridal beauty. Accordingly Christ, because He loved the church, first 'gave himself for her'; and we may interpret this phrase in the light of another used by St. Paul in his speech to the Ephesian elders, where the church is spoken of as 'purchased' or {214} 'acquired[5]' by Christ's blood. Having thus acquired the Church for His bride, He secondly 'cleansed her in the laver[6] of water with the word': and that, in order that He might 'sanctify her' and so finally 'present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.'

This threefold statement has great theological interest which we will consider shortly. Here we will simply let it stand, as St. Paul uses it, to exhibit Christ as the ideal husband, the pattern for every husband. Love for his bride; self-sacrifice in order to win her; and the deliberate aiming at moral perfection for her through the bridal union--that is the law for him. The wife, according to the original divine principle, is to be part of the man's self--one flesh with him.

He must love her truly and care for her as his own flesh. This 'mystery,' or divine secret revealed, is great, St. Paul says; 'but in saying this I am thinking of Christ and his church.' This seems to be the exact force of verse 32. In other words--this divine disclosure of the relation of G.o.d to man, as realized in the marriage of Christ and His church, is indeed great and lofty. {215} But, St. Paul continues in effect, great and lofty as it is, it is a practical pattern for us.

Do ye also, as Christ the church, severally love each one his own wife even as himself, and let the wife see that she fear (i.e. reverence and fear to displease) her husband, even as the church stands in holy awe of Christ.

Wives, _be in subjection_ unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, _being_ himself the saviour of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so _let_ the wives also _be_ to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it; that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the was.h.i.+ng of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself a glorious _church_, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh. This mystery is great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the church. Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and _let_ the wife _see_ that she fear her husband.

There are several points here which need consideration.

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1. There is a rich theology in St. Paul's brief description of the relation of Christ to the church. First, there is Christ's love for the church which involves a purpose of entire sanctification for her; then there is sacrifice, the sacrifice of Himself, for her; then there is the baptismal purification of the church to fit her for Christ, which is in fact nothing else than the baptismal purification of all the individual members of the Christian body; and this is also, as St.

Paul elsewhere teaches, the means to them of new life by union with Himself. It is their cleansing bath because therein they are 'baptized into Christ.' (Here, we notice, the a.n.a.logy of the marriage custom breaks down: what is in the marriage ceremonies only a was.h.i.+ng preparatory to union, is in the spiritual counterpart also the act of union. Baptism is both the abandonment of the old and union with the new.) Lastly, there is the final presentation by Christ of the church to Himself in sinless, stainless perfection.

We observe that Christ's sacrifice is regarded by St. Paul as preparatory and relative. He bought the church by the sacrifice of Himself to obtain unimpeded rights over her, because He loved her and in order to make her morally {217} perfect. The atonement has its value because it is the removal of the obstacles to Christ working His positive moral work in her.

We observe again that the sacrifice of Christ is spoken of as offered for the church, not for the world. Christ does indeed 'will that all men shall be saved': He did indeed 'take away,' or take up and expiate, 'the sin of the world' in its totality[7]. But the divine method is that men shall attain their salvation as 'members of Christ's body.'

Thus, if Christ's ultimate object in the divine sacrifice is the world: His immediate object is the church through which He acts upon the world and into which He calls every man. 'I pray,' He said, 'not for the world, but for them whom thou hast given me.' 'He gave himself for us that he might redeem us ... and purify unto himself a people for his own possession[8].'

Once more we notice in this pa.s.sage a significant hint as to St. Paul's conception of baptism. There is no doubt of the spiritual efficacy which he a.s.signs to it. And we observe in germ a doctrine of 'matter'

and 'form' in connexion with the sacraments. Baptism is a 'was.h.i.+ng of water' accompanied by a 'word.' The word {218} or utterance which St.

Paul refers to may be the formula of baptism 'into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost,' or the 'word of faith' of which confession is made by the person to be baptized--the confession that 'Jesus is the Lord[9]'; but in either case the word gives the rational interpretation to the act. It sets apart what would be otherwise like any other act of was.h.i.+ng, and stamps it for a spiritual and holy purpose. 'Take away the word, and what is the water but mere water? The word is superadded to the natural element and it becomes a sacrament.' So says St. Augustine[10], in the spirit of St. Paul.

This is what is meant by the later theological term 'form[11],' the 'form' being that which differentiates or determines shapeless 'matter'

and makes it have a certain significance or gives it a certain character. Thus the form of a sacrament is the word of divine appointment which gives it spiritual significance; and the form and matter together are essential to its validity. The matter of baptism is the was.h.i.+ng by water: the form is the defining phrase 'I {219} baptize (or wash) thee into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.'

Lastly, we notice that the spiritual union of Christ and His church, though it is perfect in the divine intention from the first, is in fact only consummated at the point where the church is freed from the imperfection of sin and has become the stainless counterpart of Christ Himself. The love of Christ--the removal of obstacles to His love by atoning sacrifice--the act of spiritual purification--the gradual sanctification--the consummated union in glory: these are the moments of the divine process of redemption, viewed from the side of Christ, which St. Paul specifies.

2. We come back to St. Paul's conception of marriage to dissipate misconceptions. It is indeed absurd to speak as if St. Paul were, in this pa.s.sage, mainly emphasizing the subjection of the woman, whether this be done from the conservative side 'to keep women in their place': or from the point of view of those who desire her emanc.i.p.ation, in order to represent St. Paul, and so Christianity as a whole, as giving to women a servile position. Over against the subjection of women, he sets, and indeed gives more s.p.a.ce to emphasize, the self-sacrifice {220} and service which is due to her from the man. You cannot tear the one from the other. Like St. Peter so St. Paul would have the husband 'give honour to the wife--as to the weaker vessel' indeed, but also as 'joint heir of the grace of life[12].' In essential spiritual value men and women are equal. 'In Christ is neither male nor female.'

St. Chrysostom rightly bases on this pa.s.sage a powerful appeal to husbands to overcome their selfishness in their relation to their wives. There is nothing servile in the subordination required of the woman[13]. If 'the husband is the head of the wife, the head of the husband is Christ, and the head of Christ is G.o.d.' Christ even is subordinate. And the character of the heads.h.i.+p of the husband {221} altogether excludes the idea that women are to be married in order to serve men's selfish interests or gratify their pa.s.sions.

Then we must notice that St. Paul is impressing upon us a moral ideal of which the two parts are inseparable. St. Paul says nothing to indicate that where the relations are not ideal--where the husband is selfish or brutal--law should not step in to protect the interests of the wife and secure her against the insults or cruelties or frauds of the husband. He is expressing a moral ideal[14]; while law must be largely content with preventing outrage and securing a background on which ideals can become possible. And just as St. Paul tells Christians that they are to obey magistrates as G.o.d's ministers--leaving it to be understood that when they command what is contrary to G.o.d's will, 'we ought to obey G.o.d rather than men'; so in the same way he speaks of the wife's (or child's or slave's) duty of subjection, leaving a similar reservation likewise to be tacitly understood. Obedience is to be 'in the Lord.'

3. But no doubt St. Paul does emphasize the subordination of women to men. He will {222} not ordinarily[15] permit the woman 'to teach (in the public a.s.sembly) nor to have dominion over a man[16].' He clearly does not think the difference of male and female is merely physical, but perceives that the characteristic moral perils of the s.e.xes[17] are different: he a.s.signs to man the governing and authoritative position, and to woman the more retired and 'quieter[18]' functions. It may indeed be argued that in certain details St. Paul's injunctions are for his time only, and no more of perpetual obligation than his prohibition of second marriages to the clergy is a.s.sumed to be, or his quasi-recognition of slavery. But this argument carries us but a little way. The most of what St. Paul says of men and women is based on a principle which he conceives to be divine, and which all history and experience confirms. The position of women in Christendom has often fallen far short of what is truly Christian: but no attempted rectification will be found otherwise than disastrous which ignores the fundamental principle. All through the animal kingdom mental differences accompany the physiological difference between the s.e.xes.

Experience teaches {223} that women, as a whole, are superior to men in certain moral qualities--in self-sacrifice, sympathy, purity, and compa.s.sion, and in religious feeling, reverence and devotion: but inferior to them in the moral qualities which are concerned with government--in justice, love of truth and judgement, in stability and reasonableness. Intellectually women have very often greater quickness of apprehension and memory, greater power in learning languages, greater artistic sensibility. But they are conspicuously inferior in the constructive imagination, in creative genius, in philosophy and science. It is sometimes said that if women had been as well educated as men--and a.s.suredly on Christian principles they ought to be, if differently, yet equally well educated--they would have created as much. Why, then, have almost no women been poets of the first order, or musical composers, or painters? For in these artistic walks of life their education has been in many countries better and more continuous.

To maintain that men and women are only physiologically different is to run one's head against the brick wall of fact and science, no less than against St. Paul's and St. Peter's principles[19].

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It remains true that

'women is not undevelopt man But diverse ... seeing either s.e.x alone Is half itself, and in true marriage lies Nor equal, nor unequal[20].'

4. It is necessary to add something about the position a.s.signed by St.

Paul, in other epistles, to unmarried women; and to notice the relation of his 'theory of women' to earlier Jewish ideas and those current in general society.

Nothing could well exceed the influence or n.o.bility of the position of the Jewish wife and mistress of the household, as it is given, for example, in the Book of Proverbs[21]. That position St. Paul can perpetuate and deepen, but hardly augment. And the Old Testament recognized an altogether exceptional position in certain women endowed with the gift of prophecy, like Miriam and Deborah and Huldah, who in virtue of their gift exercised a public and {225} quasi-political ministry. Thus in the Christian community also there were prophetesses, and St. Paul, in the same epistle in which he forbids women in general to teach in public, seems to leave room for such exceptional women to 'pray or prophecy' in the Christian congregation with their heads covered[22]. Thus in fact all down Christian history there have been at intervals exceptional women with unmistakable gifts for guiding souls in private and directing public policy, like St.

Catherine of Siena, or with gifts of government like St. Hilda, whom the Church has rightly accepted as divinely endowed. Where Christianity appears to have made a fresh departure in regard to women was in the organized consecration of the gift of female ministry. The deaconesses like Phoebe, and women like Lydia and Priscilla, are most characteristic Christian figures; and they have a long line of successors in later deaconesses and 'widows,' and sisters of mercy, and nurses and teachers. It was the ignominy of the Church of England that for so long she narrowed down the functions of women to those which belong to wives and daughters at home. Mult.i.tudes of {226} women need other than domestic spheres and are happier away from home; and we may thank G.o.d that--apart from the specially political and judicial functions which are proper to men--the widest sphere of influence and service is now again being thrown open to women.

How pitiable it was that, in face of all Christian experience and of the authoritative language of the New Testament, unmarried women should have no prospect opened to them but such as was drearily summed up in the phrase 'old maids.' St. Paul, if in this epistle he is glorifying the married state, certainly also glorifies both for men and women the freedom of the celibate life consecrated to the service of G.o.d--the consecration of those who in a special sense are the virgin-brides of Christ. We may be thankful indeed that now, if somewhat tardily, it has received from the largest a.s.sembly of Anglican bishops ever gathered together an altogether ungrudging recognition[23].

It has been very frequently observed that, especially in Asia Minor, women in St. Paul's day were attaining in non-Christian society positions of great influence and dignity. We find them {227} very commonly holding priesthoods and public offices and magistracies. It would appear, however, that too much may be made of this. The populations of the Asiatic towns loved to be entertained with expensive games and largesses of money and grain, and to have temples built and endowed for them. Wealthy women of n.o.ble families were elected to priesthoods and offices where they could exercise their acceptable liberality in these ways. But the offices were rather of dignity than of practical government, and were closely a.s.sociated with priesthoods.

There is no evidence that women in Asiatic cities could a.s.sist at a.s.semblies, or give votes, or speak in public, or serve on legations, or enter into political relations with the Roman authorities. There were women among the Asiarchs, but probably only when they were a.s.sociated in an honorary manner with their husbands. In the early Christian church the influence of women was put to far n.o.bler uses than in Asiatic cities; but their position relatively to men was not far different from what would have been recognized in the general society of that region[24]. In other parts of the empire the {228} women of the Christian church were conspicuously in advance of those outside.

In somewhat later days of the Church there was some resentment at the high and free position a.s.signed to women in the New Testament doc.u.ments. Thus one celebrated MS. of the New Testament[25]--the Codex Bezae--changes 'not a few of the honourable Greek women and of men'

(Acts xvii. 12) into 'of the Greeks and the honourable, many men and women.' In xvii. 34 it cuts out Damaris. And in xvii. 4 it changes the 'leading women' into 'wives of the leading men.' The spirit which prompted these changes in an early Christian scribe and reviser, has not been wanting in much later ages, though it had not a chance of tampering with our sacred texts.

B. PARENTS AND CHILDREN. VI. 1-4.

[Sidenote: _Parents and children_]

After laying down the principles which determined the relation of wives to their husbands, St. Paul turns to the relation of children to their parents. The wives are to be _subordinate_ to their husbands.

Children are to be _obedient_ to their parents as part of their duty 'in the {229} Lord,' as members of His body. They are to show honour to their parents as directed by the commandment which we call the fifth, but which St. Paul here probably calls 'a commandment standing first accompanied with promise.' It stands first among those which refer to our neighbour grouped apart--as our Lord also says 'Thou knowest the commandments,' and then specifies those six alone[26]. And it is accompanied with a promise implied in the words 'that it may be well with thee and that thou mayest live long in the land[27]'--a promise that the prosperity and permanence of the nation shall be bound up with the observance of the natural law of obedience to those from whom we derive our life. I say the prosperity of the nation, and so no doubt secondly of the individual; but all through the Ten Commandments the individual is regarded only as part of the nation.

The other translation of these words--'which is the first commandment with promise'--is one to which the original Greek does not seem to give any preference, and which does not give a good sense, for the fifth commandment has neither {230} more nor less of promise than the second, and in what we now call 'the second table' it stands alone as having a promise implied.

Here again in dealing with children St. Paul pa.s.ses from the duty of the subject to that of the authority. Fathers are exhorted not to irritate their children, as in the Epistle to the Colossians they are not to provoke them, or, as the word may perhaps mean, overstimulate them so as to lead to their losing heart[28]. A broken spirit and a sullen spirit are alike bad signs in youth. But this does not mean that they are not to be disciplined; discipline is G.o.d's purpose for us all through life, and in childhood and youth parents are the ministers of G.o.d to discipline their children and put them in mind to obey G.o.d.

Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right. Honour thy father and mother (which is the first commandment with promise), that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth. And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but nurture them in the chastening and admonition of the Lord.

We may notice in this pa.s.sage the implication of infant baptism. The children are addressed 'in the Lord,' that is as already members of the {231} body of Christ. The children of any one Christian parent are, in 1 Cor. vii. 14, described as 'holy'--that is consecrated or dedicated by the circ.u.mstances of their birth and the opportunity which it supplies for Christian education--and thus fit subjects for baptism.

In fact it is probable that Christianity took from the Jews the practice of infant baptism. Within their own race indeed there was no need of a ceremony of incorporation. For the son of Jewish parents was _born_ a member of the chosen people. But a proselyte was--certainly before our Lord's time--made a Jew with a _baptism_[29] which was regarded as his new birth, his naturalization into a new and higher race. And if the proselyte had children they were baptized with him as 'little proselytes[30].' With a new depth of meaning this practice of infant baptism was taken over by the Christian church in the case of those already dedicated to G.o.d by the spiritual opportunities of their birth and education, so that the beginnings of growth might be sanctified, like our Lord's childhood, in the Spirit.