Husbands and Wives: who will come first?

I've been reading Tony Campolo's 'Speaking My Mind' which has as a subtitle, "The radical evangelical prophet tackles the tough issues Christians are afraid to face"!

It's a series of essays on various topics: women, homosexuals, science, Islam, the 'moral decline'... As I'm normally a fan of Tony Campolo and I like how he approaches issues, I thought I'd find out what he had to say. I haven't been disappointed so far.

The first essay is on women in the church (and in marriage). He's less even-handed here than he is in other areas, but I was especially struck by the point he makes about us asking the wrong questions.

For example, he talks about being asked "Who's supposed to be the head of the house?"

'When I hear such a question, I am inclined to say, "If you were really a Christian, you wouldn't ask a question like that. The Christian never asks who's going to be master. Instead, the Christian asks who's going to be the servant. The true Christian never asks who's going to be the first in any hierachy but rather asks who's going to be last."

Fortunately, I don't have to be that tough in my answer. All I have to do is read what Jesus said about all of this when He taught His disciples: "And he sat down, and called the twelve, and saith unto them, If any man desire to be first, the same shall be last of all, and servant of all" (Mark 9:35). Then I simply ask how he could apply this Scripture in answering the question he just asked.'

He also makes the point that husbands are told in Ephesians to love their wives even as Christ loved the church. And he quotes Philippians 2:5-8: "...took upon him the form of a servant...and became obedient unto death..."

He goes on to conclude that 'if a Christian husband wants to love his wife as Christ loved the church, he has to define himself as her slave... What all this amounts to is a living out of each serving the other in love, even as Paul instructs them to (Gal 5:13).'