Hierarchy
by Caleb Cangelosi, a senior at LSU and was the Highlands Study Center's first resident student. Pretty good huh?

When I was in high school my least favorite subject was always English. It bothered me that there were no right answers to my teacher's questions. Everyone had their own opinion, so none was ever wrong. This was probably what drove me to be a math major in college. One's opinion does not count for squat in math class the square root of 81 is 9 every time, even if you think it is 8, or if you want it to be 8. There are right and wrong answers, absolutes, in algebra, not opinions or feelings.

We must approach the idea of the family with W the same mindset - there is a right answer, and opinions do not matter. Where do we find these right answers? Do we look at the family we grew up in? Maybe, but maybe not. How about "The Cosby Show" or "The Simpsons"? No way, although many of our families have been unconsciously modeled on what we see on television. As Christians, there is only one place we can look: the Holy Scriptures. Someone's opinions do matter after all, and that Someone is the Creator and King of all the universe. Since the family is the building block of all social, civic, and religious life, God is not silent concerning it. He sets forth the standard He desires for our families - not only desires, but requires. A family begins when a man leaves his father and mother, and cleaves to his wife, the two becoming one flesh

(Gen. 2:24). God has set up a hierarchy within His creation: "Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ." (I Cor. 11:13) The husband's headship over the wife is a visual depiction of Christ's headship over the church, and in the same way that the church fears, obeys, and is subject to Christ, so the wife is commanded to fear, obey, and be subject to her husband. Paul is very clear in his letters, as is Peter (Eph. 5:22-24, 33; 1 Pet. 3:1-6). Likewise, the husband's love for his wife is symbolic of Christ's love for the church. Just as Christ's goal is a sanctified bride, so the husband aims in all things to sanctify his wife, "that she should be holy and blameless." (Eph.5:27) As Christ nourishes and cherishes, feeds and protects, His body, the church, so husbands are to love their own wives as their own bodies (Eph. 5:25-33). Obviously we should desire for our family to be as close a representation of Christ's relationship to His bride as possible. Paul writes that young women should be trained "to love their husbands, love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, being subject to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be dishonored." (Tit. 2:4-5) He tells Timothy that women too young to be placed on the widow list are "to get married, bear children, keep house." (I Tim. 5:14) What?! God wants me to stay home and work there?! That's what it says. Peter commands husbands to "live with your wives in an understanding way, as with a weaker vessel, since she is a woman; and grant her honor as a fellow heir of the grace of life, so that your prayers may not be hindered." (I Pet. 3:7) God holds husbands responsible for how a household is run (I Tim. 3:4-5, 12) We are the heads, and thus any sin in our family is our responsibility we may not be guilty of the sin, but we are responsible for it.

This responsibility is made more manifest when God gives us children. Children are a reward, not a punishment; a gift, not a burden. Descendants are given to the man who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways (Ps. 127:3-5; 128:1-6). But with the gift comes this responsibility, that we are to train up our children in the way they should go, and teach them the words of the Lord (Prov. 22:6: Deut. 6:4-9).

How we live as a family is not a matter of opinion. We are to obey the express Word of God, and we are to shun evil in our households. As we seek to bring our minds and lives in line with the Scriptures, the family is the first place to start.