Family Vocation: God's Calling in Marriage, Parenting, and Childhood

by Gene Edward Veith Jr.

In the ancient world the ideal person was an independent man, with economic resources and political clout, a self-sufficient autonomous person. Yet in the Church this is reversed. There the ideal human being is a dependent person, someone who is subordinate and reliant on others, such as a wife or a child or a servant. Thus the Church is the bride of Christ; all Christians are children of God and servants of Christ. The ideal state for the Christian is now no longer to be a master, with legally assured status, wealth and power, but to be a servant, free from enslavement to social status, wealth and power (1 Pet 2:16). Subordination has therefore become the normal condition in the Church. All Christians are subordinate to Christ (Eph 5:21, 23), to God the Father (Heb 12:9; James 4:7), and to the orders that God has established (1 Pet 2:13). So, every Christian is in subordination to someone else. All are under headship and authority. None are self-sufficient and autonomous.1

Arguably, submission requires a conflict of wills; otherwise, there is common agreement

The church receives from Christ and together she can bear him fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23). This fruit is directed toward others.

“But surely it is better for us to divorce than for our children to see us fighting all the time!” Well, then don’t fight, “for the sake of the children.” Reconcile, solve the problems