Touching, Marriages, Authority, & Todd Friehl Being Dumb

“Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is head of the church.”

Recently, there has been dispute over passages like these in Scripture. Rev. Rick Appleton, for example, was defrocked by a PCA Presbytery for a sermon he preached from Titus that speaks about the roles of women vis-a-vis men.

There are two extremes to avoid here. One is obvious and that is the wife who is out of control and who runs her husband. This seems to be the extreme that we are seeing a good deal of today in families and in the Church. However, a couple of generations ago it was the other extreme that was a problem, and that was the extreme of husbands using texts like this to be little tyrants in their marriages and homes. I don’t see that as much today but 40  and 50 years ago I saw it with some frequency. These were cases where the wife was so maltreated that her humanity and individuality was almost lost because she had been so badly treated by her husband.

Over a hundred years ago Charles Hodge spoke to this extreme when he wrote,

“She (the wife) is to be subject in everything. That is, the subjection is not limited to any one sphere or department of the social life, but extends to all. The wife is not subject, as to some things, and independent of the others, but she is subject, as to all. This, of course, does not mean that the authority of the husband is unlimited. It teaches its extent, not its degree. It extends over all departments, but is limited in all, first, by the nature of the relation; and, secondly, by the higher authority of God. No superior, whether master, parent, husband, or magistrate can make it obligatory on us, either to do what God forbids, or not to do what God commands. So long as our allegiance to God is preserved, and obedience to man is made a part of our obedience to Him, we retain our liberty and our integrity.”

Charles Hodge

What Hodge is saying here is that no human authority is absolute. All authority is the authority of a steward and should the steward abuse the authority that God, as King, grants that steward, then the authority of that steward is null and void. All human authority is conditional on being consistent with the authority wherein it is derivative.

So, yes, wives are to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord but the husbands are to create an atmosphere where the wife in submitting to the husband is really merely submitting to Christ.

Obviously this same principle applies in the other areas that Hodge mentions. When it comes to superior and inferior roles the superior’s role is only as legitimate as they are in submission to the Lord Christ as their superior. No temporal or earthly authority is absolute. All legitimate authority is derivative and dependent upon God’s authority being upheld, as revealed in Scripture.

Back in 2020 when the Government was abusing its authority in the context of Covid, Mr. Todd Friel, a “Reformed” chap with a radio show that gets some traffic commenting on the Government’s authority had this to offer,

“I believe that if the government tells me to put pinwheels on the side of my head every time I go out in the public I am going to put pinwheels on the side of my head.”

You can listen to this 1 minute clip with the context below. I don’t believe Friehl has ever apologized for this idiotic counsel,

Now, we are learning what some of us knew at the time that the Federal Government (Magistrates) were exercising authority that was not legitimate and just as a wife has no responsibility to obey a unlawful command from a husband so citizens have no responsibility to obey a unlawful command from the magistrate. This is Hodge’s reasoning.

Bringing this back to husbands and wives, we live in a time now, as I said where we tend to see the extreme more often of wives cucking husbands, but that fact should not find us sling-shotting in the other direction wherein men treat their wives as if they are dopes that are not mature, wise, and cherished women.

Men, if you abuse your wives your marriages, children, and lives will the lesser for it. Similarly, if you let your wife run you, your marriages, children, and life will also be lesser… far lesser.

Author: jetbrane

I am a Pastor of a small Church in Mid-Michigan who delights in my family, my congregation and my calling. I am postmillennial in my eschatology. Paedo-Calvinist Covenantal in my Christianity Reformed in my Soteriology Presuppositional in my apologetics Familialist in my family theology Agrarian in my regional community social order belief Christianity creates culture and so Christendom in my national social order belief Mythic-Poetic / Grammatical Historical in my Hermeneutic Pre-modern, Medieval, & Feudal before Enlightenment, modernity, & postmodern Reconstructionist / Theonomic in my Worldview One part paleo-conservative / one part micro Libertarian in my politics Systematic and Biblical theology need one another but Systematics has pride of place Some of my favorite authors, Augustine, Turretin, Calvin, Tolkien, Chesterton, Nock, Tozer, Dabney, Bavinck, Wodehouse, Rushdoony, Bahnsen, Schaeffer, C. Van Til, H. Van Til, G. H. Clark, C. Dawson, H. Berman, R. Nash, C. G. Singer, R. Kipling, G. North, J. Edwards, S. Foote, F. Hayek, O. Guiness, J. Witte, M. Rothbard, Clyde Wilson, Mencken, Lasch, Postman, Gatto, T. Boston, Thomas Brooks, Terry Brooks, C. Hodge, J. Calhoun, Llyod-Jones, T. Sowell, A. McClaren, M. Muggeridge, C. F. H. Henry, F. Swarz, M. Henry, G. Marten, P. Schaff, T. S. Elliott, K. Van Hoozer, K. Gentry, etc. My passion is to write in such a way that the Lord Christ might be pleased. It is my hope that people will be challenged to reconsider what are considered the givens of the current culture. Your biggest help to me dear reader will be to often remind me that God is Sovereign and that all that is, is because it pleases him. View all posts by jetbrane