31 What Does 'Head' Mean? Ephesians and a Husband’s Responsibility

Paul’s language of “head” and “body” is not about power plays—it is about responsibility, love, and shared life. In this second episode on headship, Krisan Marotta traces how Paul uses “head” across Ephesians and Colossians to describe Christ and the church, then applies that pattern to husbands and wives. The picture that emerges is not of a domineering “boss,” but of a husband entrusted with responsibility for the marriage and family, called to love his wife as his own body, while she helps him fulfill that calling before God. In this week’s episode, we explore:How the cultural situation in Corinth—husbands uncovering their heads to honor God, wives covering theirs to honor their husbands—creates a “clash of symbols” that frames Paul’s teaching The major views in today’s debate (hard complementarian, soft complementarian, egalitarian) and why “head” does not mean “source” Paul’s “head and body” imagery in Ephesians 1, Ephesians 4, and Colossians 2, where Christ as head supplies truth, growth, and completion to his body, the church How Ephesians 5 links Christ’s headship as Savior of the church to a husband’s headship in marriage What it practically means for husbands to “love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church,” and why headship is incompatible with selfishness, laziness, or abuse A concise restatement of “husband headship” and “helper”: God assigning the husband responsibility for the marriage and family, and the wife recognizing that responsibility and granting him freedom to follow his conscience How Genesis 2 and Ephesians 5 together define a biblical marriage through three commitments: specialness (leaving), one-fleshness (sharing one life), and permanence (cleaving) Why these roles can only be lived out within a covenant that rules out domination and demands mutual care, honesty, and shared purposeAfter listening, you’ll have a clearer, Scripture-rooted understanding of “husband headship” and how Paul’s use of “head” consistently points to responsible, self-sacrificing love rather than raw power. You’ll be invited to see marriage as a one-flesh partnership ordered around Christ’s goals, to resist both harsh distortions and dismissive caricatures of headship, and to consider how responsibility and help might play out in your own context with faith, courage, and tenderness before God. Previous: 30 What does Paul mean by head, 1? Series: 1 Corinthians: Pride & Prejudice in the ChurchMost people fail at Bible study because no one ever taught them how. Bible Study Boot Camp fixes that: one short email a day for a week, plus a worksheet you can use on any passage for the rest of your life.Sign up for Bible Study Boot Camp