Bible Question: "The husband is the head of the household; is the wife obligated to listen to him? She is a Christian and he professes to be one. She wants to attend church more often, but he will not go, only to Sunday Services. Is she bound to honor his wishes? Should she go to church by herself and displease her husband?"--Hazel M., Rockingham.

Bible Answer: The principle laid down by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:22 is "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord." Paul is writing to believers, so he is saying that wives should be as submissive to their husbands as they are to Jesus.

But this seems to be a case where the wife has to choose between the husband's wishes and the Lord's wishes, for Hebrews 10:25 says, "Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

The "Day" being referred to is the return of Jesus, the day we will all stand before Him in judgment for the lives we have lived and whether we have been faithful to Him. And one way of showing faithfulness to Jesus is being faithful to His church.

Obviously, this is a disagreement over how often they should go to church. He says only on Sundays, she wishes to attend other services during the week. So the wife's choice is whether she should obey her husband or what she sees as the Lord's will.

In such a case, we must go back to the first commandment, "You shall have no other gods before Me," as in Exodus 20:3.

Submitting to her husband in this matter would be putting him ahead of God, so the choice is obvious, go to church whenever you feel you should, regardless of his opposition.

But this is not to be done in a spirit of opposition, for the main principle is for husbands and wives to love one another.

"Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise the wife to her husband," 1 Corinthians 7:3 says.

Paul even covers the case of a believing wife and an unbelieving husband further in 1 Corinthians 7:13-16, which would also apply when there is a difference about the beliefs.

"And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to live with her, let her not divorce him.

"For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be unclean, but now they are holy.

"But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is not under bondage in such cases. But God has called us to peace.

"For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?"

A godly wife has won a many of a husband to her cause by simply living before him as the Lord would have her to do, or as the saying goes, "You catch more flies with honey than vinegar."

Submit Bible questions by email to writeme@johnwmyers.com

(John Myers has been a Christian lay speaker, Sunday School adult teacher and newspaper Bible study columnist for more than 20 years.)