Claim. Blessed spouses are comrades in faith bound by codified daily order — men step with the right foot first, women with the left; husbands sit east, wives west — and the wife should regard her husband’s instruction as absolute, with the man taking final responsibility for family disputes.
Elaboration. SMM specifies the codified gender order as expressive of the dual-characteristics of God: “In walking, men are to step forward with their right foot first and women are to step forward with their left foot first. Whenever they sit, it is a rule for men to sit on the east side and women on the west side” (5.2. Spouses are comrades in faith, 26-241, 1969.11.4). Mutual support is required: “Within a couple, if one side were to waver, the other should supplement with heart and devotion” (ibid, 21-87, 1968.11.3). The wife’s posture toward her husband’s morning departure is specified — “The wife of a leader should not nag her husband when he is about to leave for work in the morning. The feelings in his heart… will be like waves” (ibid, 27-88, 1969.11.26). The doctrinal warrant for marital union is divine-image: “you are embodiments of God’s love and divided into His dual characteristics. Accordingly, for these two divided embodiments to form a harmonious union, they should look for God’s love” (ibid, 144-132, 1986.4.12). The wife’s heavenly-law obedience to her husband connects to the broader “five moral disciplines” (ibid, 26-265, 1969.11.9). The implication: marriage order substantiates the four-position-foundation daily.