Body & Blood...and one flesh to reconcile

Rebellion is a very serious sin. If you disobey your husband, you are indirectly shaking your fist at God. …When you rebel against your husband’s authority, you are grieviously sinning. It is a frightening thing." Martha Peace

I posted this quote on Facebook last night and received some really funny responses. But it became a little serious when it lodged in my think-space, though.  I have been chewing on it all night.  It's disturbing to me, and I haven't been able to understand why. At first, I thought it was because it so clearly crosses the meridian into that familiar "Authority of the Husband" territory that has so addled me these many years. But that's not it. 

When I wrote about that topic before, I received e-mails from concerned people. They say things like "I feel sad for you." And "You don't believe the Bible."  Some say that I've got two conflicting philosophies that I'm trying to reconcile and that's what's causing my angst—"one foot in the world" so to speak. All of my life some folks have been labeling me as rebellious and pig-headed. For me, they've been labels with tangible life-altering consequences. I'm not going to put a shine on the fact that it's been painful.  Finally, after all these years, all of those hurts became hard to carry, so Jesus came. They did that to me, too. He said. And if you are going to be any use to me, you're going to have to endure it. But I know you. And you know me. And that's all that matters.  (If perchance, you're reading this blog and you aren't a Christian, I'll tell you a secret. People don't convert to Christianity because it makes sense. People don't convert because they're scared of hell. People follow Jesus because Jesus steps right down out of heaven and speaks to them. I'm not speaking metaphorically. I'm not making some kind of allusion. It's just like it is in the Bible. It's shocking and exposing and sweet. Jesus is winsome and beautiful. The secret of the Eucharist is that Jesus is present in that wine and bread. And not only symbolically.)

Back to the matter at hand: The reality of this quote is that it's elementally irrelevant. I think that most marriages are true partnerships. My husband isn't inclined to do something that I'm completely opposed to. And vice versa. Because we're friends. So if you find yourself in the kind of polarizing situation that would incite a fist-shaking, nose-thumbing rebellion, you've got to wonder if "submitting to your husband's authority" is your only problem.  And isn't all sin a fundamental rebellion against God? I believe that to boil sin down to its fundamental elements is to see that all sin is unbelief. Unbelief that God tells the truth and unbelief that God is good. And you see what kind of problem that unbelief is? It's the kind of problem that only unravels under the merciful hand of Jesus.  

And that's all I have to say about that.