Key Thought: God created differences in men and women to enable them to fulfill their roles. A wise woman discerns that her role is crucial for achieving success.
Definition: ‘Role’—the specific function that a husband or wife perform in a marital relationship. (Implication: the failure to carry out one’s assigned role can jeopardize oneness.)
The wife’s role includes at least four areas of responsibility that will result in oneness.
- The first area of responsibility is respect (Eph. 5:33)
- The second area of responsibility is submission (Eph. 5:22)
- The third area of responsibility is love (Titus 2:4)
- The fourth area of responsibility is making home a priority (Titus 2:5; I Tim. 5:14)
In this article, we will address the second area of responsibility for wives: Submission.
Submission
Ephesians 5:21-24—“…submitting to one another in the fear of God Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is the head of the church; and He is the Savior of the Body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.”
Colossians 3:18—“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” I Peter 3:1—“Likewise, you wives be submissive to your own husbands…”
Titus 2:3-5—“…that they (the older women) admonish the younger women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be discreet, chaste, homemakers, good, to be subject to their own husbands…”
- The Matter of Submission (v. 5:22a)
Definition: ‘Submit’—Greek (hupotasso) ‘hupo’ [under] + ‘tasso’ [arrange, line up]. It is a military word which meant lining up soldiers by rank and file to prepare them for battle.
Submission does not…
- Indicate inferiority
- Result in lost identity
- Lead to being used
- Blind obedience
- Mean overlooking his sinful behavior
- Mean becoming a slave.
Submission does mean being subject to the headship of your husband for the sake of unity and workability in the home. (God designed husbands to work for, provide for, and give security to their wives. His function or role differs distinctly from hers.)
2. The Manner of Submission (v. 22b)
- Wrong attitude: “I’ll do it, you turkey, but this is really rough. If you only knew what I was sacrificing for the sake of spirituality.”
- Right attitude: “I’ll do it as unto the Lord.” (Remember, these are His principles and He has placed your husband as the leader of your home. Your act of submission is obedience to Christ Himself.)
3. The Motive of Submission (v. 23a)
Illustration: “Christ is the head of the church; He is the savior of the body.” Wives are the “body” and husbands are the “head.” The head gives orders, not the body. If the body does not respond to the head it is spastic. When we see a well coordinated, functioning body respond to a mind, the body is honored as well as the mind. If the body does not respond, both are dishonored.
4. The Model of Submission (v. 23a-24
Illustration: Jesus Christ is the Savior of the church and when He died He declared, “It is finished!” All that He asks us to do is to fall under His provision. In the home the husband is the provider, the deliverer, the protector, the savior. All a wife has to do is fall under the protection, the provision, and the preservation of her husband.
- The Son of God submitted to the complete will of God (John 6:38). Wives are to submit to their husbands in “everything.” There is only one exception—if he asks you to do something that is contrary to the Word of God (Acts 5:29).
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