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What does it mean for a man to be the head of the house?

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A man, the head of the house, is tasked with ensuring his household is in line with what God requires a Christian home to be like. He is to execute priestly duties at the household level but what does it mean for a man to be the priest of the home? This article will look into that.

What does it mean for a man to be the head of the house?

A husband is likened to Jesus Christ and admonished to love his wife the same way Jesus loves the church. This is according to Ephesians 5:25-29 which has these words to say:

“Husbands, love your wives, just as also Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her, to make her holy, cleansing her in the washing of water by the word. He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and blameless. In the same way, husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh, but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church”

Since Jesus Christ is the Chief Priest and a husband is likened to him, it is, therefore, the duty of the husband to perform priestly duties in his family. He is to make sure he prays and intercedes for his family, organize his family to pray together, and lead in the whole worship proceedings at home among other duties of priestly nature.

Job is the perfect example of a man being a priest in his home. There is no record in Bible where Job was an actual priest called to minister in the sanctuary but he did priestly duties on his children’s behalf as recorded in the book of Job 1:5 which says:

“Whenever a round of banqueting was over, Job would send [for his children] and purify them, rising early in the morning to offer burnt offerings for all of them. For Job thought: Perhaps my children have sinned, having cursed God in their hearts. This was Job’s regular practice.”

Job ensured his children were purified after they had feasted just to make sure they were put in the right with God if they had sinned while they were partying. Therefore, Job is a model which husbands need to emulate.

Priests are people who do God’s bidding, that being the case, the man being the head and priest of the home, does not need to enquire from the wife to do what God wants him to do if he knows the wife or indeed any of the members of his household will not be in agreement.

A case in point is in the book of Genesis 22:1-19 where God puts Abraham to the test by asking him to sacrifice his son Isaac. Abraham did not object because he was obedient to God and neither did he share with his family what God had told him, he kept it a secret not because he did not love his family enough to disclose it to them but because he did not what to jeopardize the mission of God. Therefore, men when be, have to be discreet too when doing God’s bidding if there will be backlash from family.

The husband has authority over his household as it is to him that everyone including his wife submits to as admonished by the Bible in the book of Ephesians 5:22-23: “Wives, submit to your own husbands as to the Lord, for the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, husbands need people that have the love of God at heart if they are to lead their homes through the path of righteousness as any priest ought to do.

Conclusion

Being a priest in the context of a husband or head of the family means that one needs to be a spiritual person that has a relationship with God just like Abraham and Job had. Being a priest of your home entails that you care for your household and that you want everyone in the family to be saved and enter into the kingdom and as a result, you do everything that is expected of you as a priest of the home to ensure that’s what does it mean for a man to be the head of the house?.

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