Relationships

The other great curse of the Fall relates to relationships. They had already taken a hit before the Lord announced his curse to the woman, the man and woman were hiding themselves in shame from God and one another. Not a good start down the relationship path to introduce degrees of separation.

After the Fall, the woman first gets word that relationships are going to be even more strained. The words God uses are the same as in Genesis 4 when He warns Cain after his sacrifice has been found unacceptable, words about desire and rule or mastery. There, desire clearly relates to temptation to sin and we should conclude here that this punishment of God relates to her action to introduce temptation. Mastery or rule means domination over something.

What does that have to do with life today in marriage and other relationships? Jesus broke the curse but we still have to deal with the reality that the law came to Adam whose responsibility then was to teach his wife. There is something there about male headship, but not in the sense of dominion. The way we love our wives is guided not by dominion but by loving them as Christ loves the church and gave himself for her. If we were better at that we would have fewer arguments about headship.