The last lecture given briefly touched upon three major religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. One thing that stuck out during the lecture to me was the reference to St. Paul and the New Testament. It was rightly stated that Christians believe that you should love God and your neighbor.
St. Paul's view of women was brought up by Rebecca when she told us about Colossians 3: 18-19 which says, " Wives, be subordinate to your husbands, as is proper in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and avoid any bitterness toward them."
In our modern culture it is fairly easy to mistake St. Paul as a "sexist" when one reads this part of Scripture. We must remember that this was written a long time ago and that as modern day people we shouldn't interpret the Bible literally word for word. This is because the words we are currently reading from the Bible have a different cultural context. The Bible is intended to be timeless.
When one takes the time to understand the Scripture they comprehend that St. Paul actually is promoting true self-giving and authentic love between husband and wife. When the passage says "Wives be subordinate to your husbands...", it means that as wives, women should receive the sacrifice of their husbands and respect them because their husbands give a respectful sacrifice.
Traditionally, men are the givers and women are the receivers. This notion is paralleled with Christ and his sacrifice for the church, us. Christ freely bled and sacrificed his life for his bride, us. This was not only done to redeem the sins of the world, but it was also done as an example to all men. Husbands are suppose to protect, sanctify and lift up their wives. A husband's main goal should be the sanctity and innocence of his wives soul, as should the wives be for their husbands. Men should treat women with pure love, which is selfless sacrifice. This means that they give up the temptation to manipulate and use their wives to achieve their own selfish desires. A selfish desire could be asking her to provide all income because you want to stay home out of laziness. The wife should serve her husband in the same spirit as that of the church's service to Christ and husbands should care for their wife with devotion of Christ to the church.
The love a husband needs to have for his wife is expressed in the New Testament passage, Ephesians 5:28-30. This Scripture says, " So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body." Throughout the Bible their are many variations of this passage, which shows that the equal respect between man and woman is greatly important to Christians.
Christ loved and still loves all of us on this earth, not just his followers but everyone single human being whether they were moral or immoral. He accepted his fate when he was persecuted and crucified although in all reality he hadn't committed any sort of crime. St. Paul is saying that men need to learn from his example and be a real man of sacrifice for women.
So yes, with a brief glance this passage Rebecca mentioned may come off as "sexist", but when it is truly examined one finds that it highlights the equality of men and women and promotes true femininity. Just like you would treat your neighbor with respect, you should treat your spouse the same!
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