[votivesoul]

From Post 41

On top of everything else I've just written, another key point from 1 Corinthians 11 needs to be taken into account.

1 Corinthians 11:3 (ESV),

3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband, and the head of Christ is God.

Any church model or system of organization MUST not deviate from this teaching.

There are no two-headed monsters in the Church of the Living God.

As a married man, I alone am my wife's "head", just as Christ alone is my "head", just as only God is the "head" of Christ.

For anyone to attempt to interfere with this hierarchy is to usurp not only the husband's place in his wife's life, but to also USURP CHRIST'S PLACE in the husband's life, which is to USURP GOD'S PLACE in Christ's life.

You do this at your absolute peril. When Simon Peter attempted to control Christ's life by attempting to stop the Lord's journey to Jerusalem and the Cross, the Lord Jesus rebuked Simon in front of everyone and called him "a satan", i.e. an adversary, who didn't care for the things of God.

Attempting to make yourself another head in someone else's life makes you "a satan, who doesn't care for the things of God".

Simon Peter, having learned his lessons, came to write this:

1 Peter 4:14 (ESV),

15 But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evil doer or as a meddler.

Simon has just exhorted his audience to imitate Christ's example and learn to suffer patiently and in silence, when being mistreated, even persecuted. But, if you've been accused by being a murderer, or thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler, you should then speak up and defend yourself against any such accusations.

To be accused of being a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer seems pretty straightforward. But what does it mean to be accused of being a "meddler"?

We probably all know that to meddle means something like to interfere and mess with someone or something that doesn't pertain or belong to the meddler.

But the Scriptures are a little more specific:

Meddler: ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος (allotriepiskopos), a compound of two Greek terms:

ἀλλότριος (allotrios) and ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos)

ἀλλότριος (allotrios) refers to anything which belongs to another person and ἐπίσκοπος (episkopos), whence we derive the word bishop, refers to someone who has oversight in some particular fashion or manner.

As such, ἀλλοτριεπίσκοπος (allotriepiskopos) means:

one who meddles in things alien to his calling or in matters belonging to others

See: https://biblehub.com/greek/244.htm

Since the teachings of the Scripture is that the husband is the head of the wife and family, no one but the husband is called to that role. Since the wife is to reverence her husband and only yield to him (See, e.g. Ephesians 5:22-24), anyone attempting to gain another man's wife's reverence and submission is a "meddler".

Furthermore, since children are to obey their parents in the Lord (See, e.g. Ephesians 6:1 and Colossians 3:20), people who pry into and demand someone else's children be obedient to them instead of to their mom and dad, are meddler's.