“Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well...” —1st Peter 3:6
Yes! I recent read an excellent book, THE WOMAN'S
ROLE, by Pastor Curtis Hutson, who followed in Dr. John R. Rice's
footsteps as editor of the
Sword of the
Lord. January 3rd, 1981, Dr. Hutson became Editor, President,
and Director of Sword Conferences until his death in March 1995. Thank
God for such soulwinning men of God! Following below is a quote from
Dr. Hutson's book that I agree with 100%. I have believed this for
many years, and was encouraged to learn that Brother Hutson believed it as
well.
A wife is to stay home from church if her husband tells her to. I know this may harelip every dog in the county; but it is Biblical. Before God ever created a church, a family, or kids--He created the MARRIAGE! I have seen several instances where a man's wife adored her pastor, almost to the point of idolatry, and ultimately abandoned her husband for the church. This is a woeful evil. No pastor should ever come between a man and his wife (Mark 10:9). A pastor is supposed to be a servant, not a home-wrecking thug!
Here are the dear words of a great man of God, Dr. Curtis Hutson...
You are not responsible for how your husband plays his role, but you are responsible for how well you play your role. You are to show the world the relationship of the church of Christ, and your part is to make the church look best you can. It is the husband's part to make Christ look as good to the world as he can by playing the part of Christ.
You say, "What if he doesn't try very hard? What if he messes up? What if he gives me a tough time? You mean I still have to play my role?" Yes.
The Holy Spirit says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ. so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing."
She says, "In every thing?"
"Yes, every thing."
I made a mistake as a young pastor that I corrected later. I told a lady, when her husband told her not to go to church, "You just tell him you are going to church anyway. You are going to live for God." I gave her unscriptural advice. You are to be to your husband what the church is to Christ--submissive, obedient. (emphasis added)
It is like buttoning up a shirt--if you get one button right, you get the rest right. If you get your role right and keep it right, no matter how much pressure comes--and you can believe there is going to be pressure--it will work out right. A preacher once said, "Do good and it will be good."
Did you know the whole life is pressure? You are like a vessel on a potter's wheel. God is forming your life, and He makes you form the pressures that come to your life. When you say, "I do," and the curtain goes up, it is like getting inside a pressure cooker...
Submission is a right attitude, recognizing that the husband is the head. That doesn't mean the wife can't make suggestions--that she can't tell him what she wants. But the husband is to lead the home, and he is make the final decision.
Someone says, "Now, wait a minute. I have said, 'I do,' The drama is on. I know my role. Now, what is my husband's role?"
Well, if he were here, I would tell him. I might say that his script is a little longer than yours, a little more detailed. But there is no need to talk about him; he is not here. Your role is to be submissive. Look at Titus 2. Your role is to love your husband. Your role is to be discrete, chaste, keepers at home. Did you know a woman's home is her career? It should be...
I must confess I have not been as much like Christ as I wanted to be. I must confess I haven't tried very hard at times. It is easy to forget your role. When your husband asks you to do something, it is easy to say, "Do it yourself. I am not your slave." Remember, you are not playing the role of the church when you do that.
SOURCE (Chapter 3 of Dr. Curtis Hutson's excellent book, The Woman's Role).
Perhaps you're thinking, "But isn't it important to go to church?" Yes, of course, but it's far more important for a wife to obey her husband. A wife who is fulfilling her responsibilities at home will, in time, have a godly influence upon her husband... "Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives" (1st Peter 3:1). Many women forsake their husbands for the church life, and end up in divorce court.
God says that a truly submissive wife will have a positive influence upon her husband for the Lord. In some cases, the husband is resentful that his wife admires the pastor over him, so in jealousy he stops going to church. Sometimes a husband may quit church just to test his wife's loyalty. He has this right. The rebellious wife defies him and goes to church anyway. The submissive wife SUBMITS to her own husband!
Sadly, many Baptist pastors are no better than Catholic priests who arrogantly claim power over people's lives. Many churches in America have become more like cults, breaking apart marriages by brainwashing the wife that she should go to church even it it means losing her marriage. This is so evil.
In some cases, the wife is not submissive--being lazy and deceitful with her husband, hiding his mail from him, failing to clean the house, being negligent and careless, placing her parents and friends over him, lying, criticizing him--so he gets discouraged and quits church. Such a wife ought to be ashamed of herself for dragging her husband down (Proverb 14:1). She has done the exact opposite of 1st Peter 3:1. There is NO stronger power over a man than his wife. Remember, Adam forsook God for Eve.
Feminism is a two-headed monster which has crept into most of our churches. Wives today are being influenced (bombarded) by lots of unscriptural feminist advice. The result is that wives increasingly are having their own goals, ambitions, and agendas which fail to center around their husband's. No wonder the divorce rate is so high! Just as Dr. Hutson stated above... every wife's career should be HER HOME (1st Timothy 5:14). It would be a wonderful thing if America could go back 200 years when folks lived on the farm, there were no TVs, no radios, no MTV, no rock-n-roll, no pornography, no feminism, no gay-parades, no Rosie O'Donnell--life was simple then, and wives were expected to obey their husbands.
I don't think much more needs to be said... Dr. Hutson is absolutely, Biblically, and incontrovertibly right.
"But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God." -1st Corinthians 11:3
