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Should "wives, submit to your husbands" translate to "endure abuse"?

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I believe that underlying Paul’s advice to husbands to "love your wife as Christ loved the church" which is followed up by "no one ever hated his own body, but he nourishes it and cherishes it," Paul was indicating a principle of life—that if it is unnatural and wrong for a husband to hate his own body, it is equally unnatural and wrong for a husband to hate his wife's body. Self-love is not commanded; rather, it is assumed to be true. Thus, I think the biblical record would agree that when a woman’s life is in danger, when her husband is beating her, it is inapropriate for her to take it. I don’t argue for divorce, but I do argue for immediate separation in such circumstances.

Related Topic: Christian Home

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