marriage

Submission doesn’t mean what you think it means

October 7, 2020 // 10 Comments

Bad theology hurts women. Sometimes it even kills them. In his book Ten Lies the Church Tells Women, Lee Grady tells the story of a woman called Doris who suffered through an abusive marriage. Doris’s husband, the head deacon at their church, would sometimes come home from work in a rage and physically assault [...]

Who submits in marriage?

October 2, 2020 // 14 Comments

When Camilla and I were writing our wedding vows, my future wife told me that she had a problem with the word submit. We had dug up some traditional vows based on Ephesians 5:22: “I promise to love, cherish and submit to my husband as to the Lord.” “I’m not going to say that,” said Camilla. I didn’t [...]

Who’s Your Helper?

April 14, 2016 // 45 Comments

History turns on small hinges and there has been no greater turn than the fall of man as recorded in Genesis 3. Everything that is wrong with the world – war, disease, death, genocide – can be traced back to man’s rejection of God. So we might say the saddest verse in the Bible is found in Genesis 3. Except [...]

Jesus and divorce

January 22, 2015 // 111 Comments

In the past year I’ve had a couple of friends go through divorce and each time it has torn our hearts. I won’t go into details, but what has struck me is how some in the church have responded to these divorces. Let’s just say there has been an aroma and it has not been the fragrance of Jesus. Divorce seems [...]

Can divorced people remarry?

January 14, 2015 // 226 Comments

Hmm, that’s a tough one. Let me see. Can sinners be forgiven? Can runaways come home? Can crooks get a second chance? Can the broken be made whole? No, it’s not a tough question. It’s an easy question. Of course divorced people can remarry! These questions are only tough because religion has told us that [...]

Husbands’ hindered prayers (1 Peter 3:7)

January 7, 2015 // 75 Comments

A man recently asked me about a troubling verse. “My wife says my prayers are hindered because I don’t respect her enough.” He was referring to this verse: Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the [...]