We can best understand the role of the husband's authority by understanding where the parent draws their authority.

Scripture says that the Husband is the head of the wife, in authority. This denotes his position. However, his position doesn't construe necessarily that he is in any way superior to his wife. By creation, they are in every wit equal. Though they differ physiologically, their biology is the same and their morphological differences confirm the complementary nature of their relationship to one another. He is as superior to her as the parent is superior to the child - meaning their beings are equal, but they may differ in their roles and in authority (the parents may be older, but creationally their humanity doesn't differ in any way from the child's). As in every human relationship, there is a distinction in their being, yet they are of the same creation. But, just as in a husband and wife relationship, in the character of their being we find functionality that would pair up with and complement the other party in the relationship to relate the two together. With a parent and child, there is definately a notable temporal factor involved that separates the two. One is subject to the other and one generation confers an education to the other. Even without their authority, the parent is greater than the child because of the accumulation of knowledge and understanding that the child lacks because of the naivity associated with their role as a child. Not so with the husband and wife relationship whereas, whatever the difference in age, the two are closely contemporary and are generally of the same generation. They may understand one another having had similar experiences by which they can identify with one another, having accumulated from it wisdom that would not propel them forward in their relationship to one another.

The 10 Commandments includes "Honor thy mother and thy father" (Exodus 20). We are called to honor the parent, which is wholly different from obeying the parent. Honoring is best done by obeying, but in some cases where the parent commands the child to disobey God's law, honoring God's command over the parent's command is honoring the parent and fulfilling this commandment. When the creature willingly disobeys the law of God, he does so with knowledge that the law of God is just and good and willingly does what he knows to be wrong. Such a standard is present and at work within both parent and child - no matter how young, and no matter how old. When the child honors the law that the parent breaks, this too is honor shown to the parent, who agrees with the law. Therefore, obedience only partially characterizes this commandment. Honoring the parent can be seen best by when the child submits to the parent's authority. He or she is subject to the parent's government over his being - in the realm of external actions and even inwardly in his behaviors, the parent has an inalienable right to correct, instruct, counsel, and make decisions on behalf of the child. The child parent has as much rule over his being as the child does, along with the expectation of fulfilling the obligations and responsibilities associated with the parental role.

From where does the parent's authority come? The child is born into the parent's authority. The fullest extent of the parent's authority is bequeathed to them by biological constraint. By its nature, the parent's relationship with the child is instituted by creation and enforced by God's law written upon their hearts. Thus, one generation teaches another. The parents have dominion over the children. Therein, the basic authoritative unit is established - the family. By the very character of the functions of biology in nature, every human being is subjected to authority. This is not willingly, and the human being is born into a family without any consent from their human will. Undecidedly, they are subject to the authority of their two parents and given into this relationship by birth.

Like the husband and wife relationship, the parent's authority over the child is compelled by the role of function inherint within the relationship. In their mind, the child is the child because the parent is the parent. Therefore, the child obeys the parent's rule, and wouldn't in any other wise obey in the same manner the rule of a complete stranger or another relative unless that person has been given parental authority and by guardianship (as in the death of the parent conferring it by inheritance upon another willing party). The commandment that constrains us to obey parents and subjects us to their authority is upon every man by conscience. When we transgress their authority, our consciences convict us of sin, because the law of God enforces it. However, the constraints of the husband's authority over the wife, though by virtue of the relationship are there by compulsion, aren't directly enforced by the law of God. When the husband's role of authority is being fulfilled, it is by natural order, by virtue of creation because of the route of marriage being instituted by nature, and there is experienced a great protection from the husband's place of authority in the marriage. Yet, the husband's position of authority isn't directly enforced over the wife by the law of God. The husband's authority over the wife is to be enforced by the wife's consent. Submission is by consent  The husband's authority is being honored being the wife agreeing to submit.

The parent's authority is conferred through consanguinous blood-relation to the child. By nature, their blood-relation gives them their authority over their child. However, the husband's authority is conferred to him by affinity through covenantal agreement with his wife. Their relationship is entirely upheld by their agreeing to abide with one another within each role. Two strangers without blood-relation become related to one another and each other's relatives in kinship through this agreement.

Our compulsion to submit to parents is divided between the nature of the object of 'parent.' Their authority by position is divided by their authority by character. The child may submit by virtue of the character of the parent: they are loving, kind, good-natured, upright, and set a good example for the child to obey and follow. They may willingly submit to their authority by their uprightness. However, the parent whose character is markedly opposite in nature: they are unliving, unkind, full of ungodly and unlawful behavior, and set a poor example of not only sufficient parenthood but of humanity - the child is still obligated to honor their authority and is given no excuse in being rebellious against them because of the ingnobility of their character. Neither does the strictness of the parent to enforce their government over the child excuse excuse the child. The child whose parents are loose in disciplining them or enforcing restrictions is under as much obligation by law to their parents as the son or daughter whose parents hold a tight leash on every action and behavior. Therefore, the position of the parent's authority over the child holds greater place than the character by which that authority is sufficiently carried out and enforced.

The personality of the parent has to be overcome in deciding to obey to the parent's authority. All authorities will be judged by God, who grants authority to man by His goodness towards the creation for their order, and the parent will have to give an account of their rule on the Day of Judgment. However, the child as subjects of their rule is obligated to honor the parent no matter how abused their authority. Thus, the child must learn to fulfill his or her role of honoring the parent despite the character of the parent who is carrying out their rule. No matter what character flaws the parent possesses, their position of being placed over the child gives no excuse for dishonoring them for lack or want of any character. Morality is expected from their rule, and the position necessitates the parent to sufficiently model the good behavior desired in the child, yet the child is still obligated to honor despite the parent's lack of obedience to the law of God written on their heart to uphold the required morality of God's law. The child must give an account before God for his or her own sins on the day of Judgment, without the presence of the parent.

If the husband has any authority over the wife, from whence does this authority come? Unlike the parent's relationship with the child, the husband doesn't get his authority from creative order. What best characterizes his authority is submission by the will of the subject of his authority. His rule and government over his wife isn't enforced by law. Decidedly, the wife subjected herself to her husband's authority by virtue of agreeing to be lawfully married by covenant and given into this relationship by choice. The origin of the husband's authority over his wife comes before the fall of man and before the curse of creation because of that fall. Genesis reveals God instituted marriage while both man and earth were still 'good.' The roles of this relationship aren't enforced by law, because there is no commandment that says 'Honor thy husband.' Rather, God's law protects this relationship. The covenantal agreement of both parties, husband and wife, are subject to obeying that seventh commandment that keeps them from violating their agreement, 'Thou shalt not commit adultery.' The inhibitions that would perpetuate the marriage are kept in place by the law of God upon the heart that buffet the husband and wife and keep them from violating their marriage.

All human relationships must come to an end. The only husband and wife relationship in heaven, in eternity, is the marriage between Jesus Christ and the Church He shed His blood to redeem. The only parent-child relationship that exists in heaven will be God the Father fathering the children He has gained by adoption through the blood of His Son. Therefore, there is a greater marriage in heaven.

By Isaac D.