Some take it too far one way, and others too far the other way. A marriage is not a dog and master relationship- on either side. I've watched the tv show Everybody Loves Raman, and I do laugh at the jokes, but it sickens me that what started out as a joke has become a reality in most households now- the wife bossing around her husband, or even worse the children bossing around the parents.
But marriage is a partner relationship. Granted the wife is the weaker partner, but that does not give the husband the right to take out the word 'partner' altogether. According to some ways of thinking, Sarah would have been disobedient to Abraham when he said Ishmael must stay, and she said he must go. But God told Abraham to listen to his wife. She is not excluded from making big family decisions, nor is he. They need to sit down and discuss it together as partners.
And I've heard it said that a wife should only get an allowance and the husband controls all the money. This is not biblical. The proverbs 31 wife bought and sold land and her husband had full confidence in her to do so. Over the decades so many ideas and opinions have made and taught. Like the idea that women are less important than man.
If I had two children whom I caught doing the same thing wrong, and gave them two different punishments, that does not mean that one is more important than the other, or that I favor one over the other. The bible says in Christ there is no male or female, slave nor free, etc. He loves all His children the same and shows no favoritism.
So Adam and Eve got different punishments, so what? I think he got the worse one- hard physical labor his whole life? I would rather give natural child birth and get it over with. But what is shameful is that the man is forcing the woman to share in his punishment as well. Making her work so they have more money. But these are just roles we play on the earth. The bible says on the earth the one being served is the most important, but in the spiritual world it is the one who serves others the most.
Submitting vs obeying...
The bible uses a different word for wives and children, not the same word. In obeying you have no choice- you are told to do something, and if you do not do it you are sinning. Submitting is not obeying. Submit means she will give effort to promote him leading his family if he does so in a Godly way. If he wants her to do something that goes against the bible, she must obey God because she is His child and He is her God.
Christ never ever forces His bride into submission, it must be her choice, her decision. But I'll tell ya, if I had a husband like Christ I would want to submit to him. Guys may not know this, but God put a desire in a woman to want to please her man, IF he is loving and worthy of respect, and the opposite is true as well. If he is not loving or worthy of respect, she will have no desire to please him. And the bible says that if a man mistreats his wife He will not hear his prayers. He could be in the ocean with a shark approaching and scream for God to save him, but God will refuse to hear his prayer.
How did Jesus treat His bride? He fed her, clothed her, and died a torturous death to save her.
Even Jesus humbled Himself when He had every right to boast. If man (or woman) states that they are more important, they have already missed the mark.
