To help dispel some of the false ideas that many women were taught about marriage, we encourage you to listen to Pastor Sam Powell’s sermon The Gospel and Your Marriage which expounds on 1 Corinthians 7:3-6. This sermon follows on from Sam Powell’s first sermon on 1 Corinthians 7:1-2 — The Immeasurable Goodness of God.
In The Gospel and Your Marriage, Ps Powell rejects the notion that “the husband is head of the wife” means the husband has authority over her. But he doesn’t say that “head” means source. So what does he say? Listen to the sermon and find out!
Two caveats before you listen:
1) The prayer at the end is spoken as if all the listeners to the sermon are married and are married to genuine Christians. Ps Powell has explained:
In the contexts of both sermons, I was addressing Christians who are married. I spoke of dysfunctional marriages, and mentioned that this text doesn’t address them. I also mentioned at the end that if intimacy is dreaded, then something is wrong – and begged the congregation to seek help. But I wanted to speak to married Christians in that sermon, and show them the difference between sex as God created it, and sex as corrupted by the world. I understand your point, but the prayer was a prayer of application of that particular sermon — directed towards the Christians who are married. BTW, I also distinguished between Christians and those who say they are Christians but are liars — known by their works.
2) Ps Powell says at one point in the sermon that the Corinthian church had been thinking that since sexual intimacy was wrong outside of marriage, it was best to eschew sexual intimacy within marriage as well. This is a very common interpretation made by commentators and teachers. We (Jeff and Barb) don’t really see scriptural evidence that the Corinthian church was practicing and lauding celibacy. But there is evidence from Scripture and from extra-biblical literature that many people in the city of Corinth — and some Corinthian churchgoers — were getting into sexual immorality.
[June 7, 2023: Editors’ notes:
—For some comments made prior to June 7, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be an exact match.
—For some comments made prior to June 7, 2023 that quoted from the post, the text in the comment that was quoted from the post might no longer be found in the post.
If you would like to compare the text in the comments made prior to June 7, 2023 that quoted from the post to the post as it is now (June 7, 2023), click here [Internet Archive link] for the most recent Internet Archive copy of the post.]
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UPDATE Sept 2021: I have come to believe that Jeff Crippen does not practise what he preaches. He vilely persecuted an abuse victim and spiritually abused many other people in the Tillamook congregation. Go here to read the evidence. Jeff has not gone to the people that he spiritually and emotionally abused. He has not apologised to them, let alone asked for their forgiveness.
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