Excellent, as always Kate! Only thing I’d add, for our continued edification’s sake in the Body of Christ, is that even though we don’t like to think about this – – sometimes, Christian women can find themselves married to a “religious abuser,” a professing Christian who has a form of religion in public, but not the spirit of Christ behind closed doors. (2 Timothy 3.)
Such women can, unfortunately, find themselves beaten up and beaten down on every level— physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – –by professing Christian husbands who have no qualms at all in twisting scriptures like these you mention here—and others—in order to justify continuing unrepentant in heinous mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical abuses of their wives and children.
When speaking with groups of women I endeavor therefore to go the extra mile to mention that experiencing repulsion, resentment and righteous anger toward anyone claiming to be a Follower of Jesus who persists unrepentant in abusive behavior of any kind (while shaming, blaming/faulting, and/or demonizing the one(s) he is abusing) is a very healthy, normal response to Pharisaical behavior that Our Savior illustrated for us on multiple occasions.
Too many Christian women, told by well-meaning but mis-guided pastors or counselors that they are somehow at fault or to blame for the hard-hearted, unrepentant behaviors of an abusive spouse, and that if she would only pray more/better, help him better in his ministries, and/or be a more “submissive” Christian wife, God would reward her by changing her husband’s heart have, sadly, wound up dead or in psychiatric wards as a result.
I know this is a topic many Christians don’t like to even think about, let alone address, yet it is one we cannot afford to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to in these perilous 2 Timothy 3 last days, when “lovers of themselves” who have a form of religion but deny the Spirit of the law are not only on the rise, but becoming extremely skillful in their deceptions.
Excellent, as always Kate! Only thing I’d add, for our continued edification’s sake in the Body of Christ, is that even though we don’t like to think about this – – sometimes, Christian women can find themselves married to a “religious abuser,” a professing Christian who has a form of religion in public, but not the spirit of Christ behind closed doors. (2 Timothy 3.)
Such women can, unfortunately, find themselves beaten up and beaten down on every level— physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually – –by professing Christian husbands who have no qualms at all in twisting scriptures like these you mention here—and others—in order to justify continuing unrepentant in heinous mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical abuses of their wives and children.
When speaking with groups of women I endeavor therefore to go the extra mile to mention that experiencing repulsion, resentment and righteous anger toward anyone claiming to be a Follower of Jesus who persists unrepentant in abusive behavior of any kind (while shaming, blaming/faulting, and/or demonizing the one(s) he is abusing) is a very healthy, normal response to Pharisaical behavior that Our Savior illustrated for us on multiple occasions.
Too many Christian women, told by well-meaning but mis-guided pastors or counselors that they are somehow at fault or to blame for the hard-hearted, unrepentant behaviors of an abusive spouse, and that if she would only pray more/better, help him better in his ministries, and/or be a more “submissive” Christian wife, God would reward her by changing her husband’s heart have, sadly, wound up dead or in psychiatric wards as a result.
I know this is a topic many Christians don’t like to even think about, let alone address, yet it is one we cannot afford to turn a blind eye or a deaf ear to in these perilous 2 Timothy 3 last days, when “lovers of themselves” who have a form of religion but deny the Spirit of the law are not only on the rise, but becoming extremely skillful in their deceptions.