Thursday, October 24, 2013

Do You Love your Toothbrush?

"You own your spouse like you own your toothbrush." This is a quote from a sermon I once heard. This sermon was preached in a Regular Baptist Church by a pastor who serves on leading councils in his circles. His text was Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as unto the Lord." Based on this verse alone, this pastor went on to preach a one-sided sermon filled with heresy and falsehoods. He claimed that this applies to both men and women in that they "own" their spouse like they own their toothbrush.

Another statement made in the sermon was, "The word 'own' is emphasized in the Greek, making it the focus of this verse. God wants us to know we own our spouses!"

Friends, this is heresy and I have found that people who teach heresy are getting away with it right and left. We do not own our spouse like we own our toothbrush!

Toothbrushes are disposable........People are not disposable.

Toothbrushes can be bought and sold.....People are not to be bought and sold. 

The word "own" in this verse is the Greek word "idios" which literally means "peculiar, individually, privately."  It is not emphasized in the Greek as was taught. In the context of Ephesians 5:22, it is used to show that a woman's husband is peculiar to her as a husband, not owned like a toothbrush. She does not "own" him in the sense of owning a possession.

Heresy creeps in a little at a time. A pastor misuses a passage like this, then a few weeks later misuses another passage, and that goes on for a while and before you know it, the church has gone down the slippery slope of false teaching. In another sermon, I heard this same pastor say, "The wife is just the husband in another body." Heresy. Clear as a bell.

God's Word, and the preaching thereof, is never a little thing. It is how God manifests His Word in our hearts. It's how He has chosen to make Himself known to man. I never take the preaching of the Word lightly and I will fight false teaching with all my might, no matter what the cost. Be vigilant. Search the Scriptures to see if what you are being taught is true and right.

~Tricia