I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully, 1st Timothy 5:14.
A word that is never used in our King James Bible is "manage" or "manager". To be a manger is to be the boss. A manager doesn't necessarily own a business, but a manger is the one in charge. How fitting in the 21st century that both the NIV and the ESV in their never-ending quest to obscure the truth should command women to manage their homes!
ESV: So I would have younger widows marry, bear children, manage their households, and give the adversary no occasion for slander.
NIV: So I counsel younger widows to marry, to have children, to manage their homes and to give the enemy no opportunity for slander.
It is also interesting to note that our bible did not make that statement exclusively to widows. The new bibles do. The advice in 1st Timothy 5:14 is equally applicable to all young women regardless of whether or not they have ever been widowed. What our King James Bible does not do is that it does not make those young married women the managers of their home. It makes them the guides of their respective homes.
When the Ethiopian Eunuch couldn't understand a portion of scripture, he did not ask Philip to manage him. He wanted a man to guide him; And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me?, Acts 8:31. Peter called Judas the guide to them that took Jesus. He was not their manager; Judas, which was guide to them that took Jesus, Acts 1:16.
We live in an age when the distinctions and responsibilities of men and women are skewed and mixed up so much that there is almost no foundational truths that mainstream culture will accept. As I tell my people, we aren't going to change the collective mind of mainstream culture. What we can do is secure our own churches and those families in the churches who desire godly living. We can give them bible truth.
When I have a new couple in my church who have been subjected to the world's warped views on life, they often blanch when I speak of who has the final say in a home. Women are often happy to hear that their husbands are in charge, but they have severe doubts as to his ability or even his consistency. Men today are often tied up in their toys and gadgets. They make a great show of being men in public, but the poor woman to whom they are attached knows the man as he really is behind the scenes. The best medicine for such a man is to force him to lead.
I use the United States Senate as my example for how a fair vote works and how an issue is resolved when the vote is a tie. In the United States Senate when a vote is tied, the Vice President of the United States gets to cast the deciding vote. Is that because the framers of the American Constitution assumed that the Vice President would be the smartest man in Washington? No, a thousand times no, it was done to make a civil way to break an impasse. It is wonderful when a man and wife hold a vote on what to do and the outcome is two to zero on any given issue. All too often after a man and wife have debated and looked at a problem, the vote is a tie. It's one against one. Who breaks that tie? In a hellish home the woman breaks the tie through emotional maneuvering. The man just waves her off and goes back to his woodworking shop or whatever else hobby he has. In a godly home the man breaks the tie.
In God's constitution for the family the man breaks the tie. Is that because he is smarter? No, a thousand times no, in many cases the woman is far smarter. As far as whether or not my ideas have been better than my wife's ideas, I am about as accurate as a coin toss. I wasn't given the tie breaking vote because of my wisdom. I was given the tie breaking vote to keep us civil and united. God would rather have a family move forward with a flawed plan being executed by two united people than a good plan moving forward with two divided people.
Within the framework of a home, the husband and wife might divvy up the management of certain responsibilities, but the husband has the final say. The wife is to guide each aspect of the home in harmony with the decisions that she and her husband have made as a team.
The new versions are doing their part to destabilize the homes. That doesn't mean much to the adherents of the new bibles because they rarely obey any bible. They merely conform to the latest fad pushed by a program or motivational speaker. Such programs or speakers may use a bible as a prop, but they are never in subjection to any bible. We need to train our people to be in subjection to the word of God. All other subjection will come far easier if they are in subjection to God's word.
In 1982 or so, I bought into the hype and purchased a New King James Version. I read no further than Genesis 2:18 and put it down forever. I immediately recognized what Thomas Nelson was up to. "Comparable to him" doesn't mean the same thing as "meet for him" by any stretch of the imagination.