Biblical Foundations of the Family
The Biblical foundations of the family starts with the husband/father as the head of the household, the wife/mother who is 2nd and submissive to the husband, last the children must obey the parents. If there is no husband, the mother is the head of the household, and the children are to obey her and respect her.
The Biblical foundation is set up as the Trinity, the Father is the head, the Son (Jesus) is in submission to the Father, and the Holy Spirit submits to both. According to our textbook, our families should model the Trinity as a biblical family because this is how God meant it to me, this is how he designed the Christian family. So the husband/father would be the head as the Father is the head of the Trinity, the wife/mother is 2nd and submissive as Christ is submissive to the Father, and the children are to obey both the father and the mother as the Holy Spirit obeys both the Father and the Son.
The husband/father must be the spiritual leader of the family and his job is to make sure that his family is spiritually fed. This is the command that God gave to all husbands/fathers, today it seems that many have gotten away from this. The Bible clearly shows that the husband/father should be the spiritual leaders in the family, you can read this in numerous scriptures, I have listed only a couple.
1. Ephesians 5:22-33 - Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
2. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 - And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Most father’s today feel it is the responsibility of the mother to bring their children up in the Lord, and that they are responsible for the children’s spiritual welfare. But as we see in the two scriptures above, this is clearly not the case, the husband must take the step to become the spiritual leader that God intended him to be. It is imperative that this spiritual leadership get back to the foundations of scripture.
We see this lack of leadership more prevalent in the Black community because they lost the male leadership during the slave era. The husbands were always sold off and the wives and children were left behind, thus the mother became the spiritual leader of the household. This shows up in the Black Churches as well, the women seem to take charge and the men seem to be submissive, the men need to take charge and be the spiritual leaders in these churches. I found this very interesting in our textbook as this was something I never knew.
As a Christian family we need to get back to the basics of the spiritual household and follow the example of Christ and the Holy Spirit, by allowing the husbands to take that leadership as God wants them to. This leadership does not mean that as a Christian household we are to listen to or obey something that is clearly sinful. Some husbands have also gone to the extreme and believe that the wife is submissive almost as a slave would be. Though he is clearly the leader of the house, the wife is his equal as Christ and the Holy Spirit are equal to God. The Christian family should look like:
1. The husband as the head/spiritual leader-The Father
2. The wife 2nd and submissive to the husband but equal in authority-The Son
3. The children submissive to both parents-The Holy Spirit
The Biblical foundations of the family starts with the husband/father as the head of the household, the wife/mother who is 2nd and submissive to the husband, last the children must obey the parents. If there is no husband, the mother is the head of the household, and the children are to obey her and respect her.
The Biblical foundation is set up as the Trinity, the Father is the head, the Son (Jesus) is in submission to the Father, and the Holy Spirit submits to both. According to our textbook, our families should model the Trinity as a biblical family because this is how God meant it to me, this is how he designed the Christian family. So the husband/father would be the head as the Father is the head of the Trinity, the wife/mother is 2nd and submissive as Christ is submissive to the Father, and the children are to obey both the father and the mother as the Holy Spirit obeys both the Father and the Son.
The husband/father must be the spiritual leader of the family and his job is to make sure that his family is spiritually fed. This is the command that God gave to all husbands/fathers, today it seems that many have gotten away from this. The Bible clearly shows that the husband/father should be the spiritual leaders in the family, you can read this in numerous scriptures, I have listed only a couple.
1. Ephesians 5:22-33 - Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word,
2. Deuteronomy 6:6-7 - And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
Most father’s today feel it is the responsibility of the mother to bring their children up in the Lord, and that they are responsible for the children’s spiritual welfare. But as we see in the two scriptures above, this is clearly not the case, the husband must take the step to become the spiritual leader that God intended him to be. It is imperative that this spiritual leadership get back to the foundations of scripture.
We see this lack of leadership more prevalent in the Black community because they lost the male leadership during the slave era. The husbands were always sold off and the wives and children were left behind, thus the mother became the spiritual leader of the household. This shows up in the Black Churches as well, the women seem to take charge and the men seem to be submissive, the men need to take charge and be the spiritual leaders in these churches. I found this very interesting in our textbook as this was something I never knew.
As a Christian family we need to get back to the basics of the spiritual household and follow the example of Christ and the Holy Spirit, by allowing the husbands to take that leadership as God wants them to. This leadership does not mean that as a Christian household we are to listen to or obey something that is clearly sinful. Some husbands have also gone to the extreme and believe that the wife is submissive almost as a slave would be. Though he is clearly the leader of the house, the wife is his equal as Christ and the Holy Spirit are equal to God. The Christian family should look like:
1. The husband as the head/spiritual leader-The Father
2. The wife 2nd and submissive to the husband but equal in authority-The Son
3. The children submissive to both parents-The Holy Spirit