The Woman is Always Right
by Oliver Carlos
I once saw a shirt that has outline images of a man and woman similar to the ones we see on toilet doors. There’s an accompanying text printed on the shirt: “The Woman is Always Right.” That made me think. Beginning that day, I started observing the comfort rooms I see, and to my surprise, the woman is indeed always at the right!
Is this always the case, that the woman is always right and never wrong? The husband and wife need not struggle for power or fight for supremacy in the family. That’s not God’s will and God’s plan. God wanted harmony, peace, joy, and love to abound in the home. There are passages in the Bible wherein God outlined specific instructions on how to achieve this. The general idea is that he compared the husband-and-wife relationship with the Christ-and-the-church bond.
To the husbands, this is what the Bible says:
“For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her… In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies…No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.” (Ephesians 5:25–29, NLT)
To the wives, the apostle Paul instructed this:
“You wives must submit to your husbands’ leadership in the same way you submit to the Lord. For a husband is in charge of his wife in the same way Christ is in charge of his body the Church. So you wives must willingly obey your husbands in everything, just as the Church obeys Christ.” (Ephesians 5:22–24, TLB)
Let’s discuss about the husband first. The Bible says that just like Christ who died for the church, the husband should also be that self-sacrificing for his wife. Just as Jesus so loved the church, the man should love his wife with such a great love too. He must take care of her just like how Christ takes care of his people, protecting them, feeding them, and providing everything they needed.
As for the wives, they must look at the same model, how the church relates to Christ. The church submits or follows Christ in everything. This does not mean that the wife would be treated as a doormat or something like that, NO! Christ does not do that to the church. But rather, Christ listens to the church, considers its best interest, and acts according to his loving will.
Take prayer as an example. The church can pray for anything and say anything in prayer, but in the end, it would still be Christ who would have the final say in every prayer request. Same with the husband and wife. The wife can say her ideas, pour out her emotions, lay out her intentions, but she would still gladly wait, listen and submit to her husband’s leadership.
“So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.” (Ephesians 5:33, NLT).
If only this Biblical model is implemented in the home, there wouldn’t be much fuss in everything. It takes two to tango. Both husband and wife must understand and accept these pointers. It cannot be just one doing his or her part. In addition, let us be reminded that we should do our part not for selfish gain, but because we wanted to honor God in the way we live as we make him the center of our marriage and home.
“Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.” (Ephesians 5:21, MSG)
Going back to the earlier question, “Is the woman always right?”, I guess the answer is clear. Both man and woman aren’t perfect. We all make mistakes and bad decisions. It is God who is always right. Therefore, it is him whom we should listen to and whose words we must follow always. If we do so, we will never go wrong.
