To submit or not to submit?
Submit is one of those words that tends to evoke feelings of disgust or even the image of violence or servitude. It is a word that can make people cringe. And when it comes to the Church, perhaps even more so. It is a word translated from the Greek that has developed a very different meaning from the Biblical text of Ephesians 5. And sadly, we often prefer to ignore it completely rather than understand what it means for the Christian.
The beauty of this word is that, under God, submission is a very helpful word, as understood in the context of the Bible. The orignal Greek word, "upotasso", is one that stems from love and relationships, and from Jesus himself as the one who submits to the will of the Father in love for humanity. The very act of submission is an act of love, when understaood correctly. The tone is set in chapter 4:1-3...
Ephesians 4:1-3
1As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
There is a call for mutual love and patience and humility. This is the premise for the calls to submission. And it is a very important premise!
So what does he say about submission?
Ephesians 5:21-33
21Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.22Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30for we are members of his body. 31“For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
1. All submit to one another. Every person to every person.
2. Then a special call for wives to submit to their own husbands
What does it mean? If we all submit to each other but then wives submit to their own husbands, what is this about?
For the Bible's context, this is about respecting and honoring God's order. Sounds OK. But what is that order we are to respect? What is God's order that we are to come under, to each other and then wives to husbands?
It is the model of Christ.
Whether it is all of us submitting to each other, or when it's a wife submitting to a husband, it is all modelled on Jesus as the head of the Church. We honour Christ in his headship over the church - but again, what is his headship? It is this:
Ephesians 5:25
25Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
Sacrificial love. This is true headship. This is the order of God for which we give ourselves over to... each of us sacrificially loving others - let's submit to that! And husbands with a special call in particular, to be sacrifically loving their wives - let's submit to that!
For the order of our relationships in family and Church, God has given some the opporutnity to serve in a position of headship - in the church, and in the family. And we choose to submit to that responsibility of headship WHEN (and only when) they exercise that headship, that responsibility, with sacrifical love. This headship is one of sacrificial love and servant heartedness. And the response of submission is one of choice, and never coersion. That is, we choose to submit to those with a sacrifical, loving responsibility in their headship
Back again to chapter 4:2 - humility, love, patience.
Ephesians 4:2
2Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
In our Church community, in our families, we honour God's order for headship - that is, loving, sacrificial responsibility for a Church or for a family. It is an order of service, emulated by the head of God's Church, Jesus. Humiliated he hung, upon a cross, sacrificially laying down his life for his bride, the Church.
Prayer
Lord God, thank you for Jesus, for his humility, his devotion, his sacrifical love for me and for the Church. May we honour him by also showing this sacrificial love to each other. And in our marriages, may you help each husband to take on the responsibility of sacrifically love their wife as Christ loved the Church and laid his life down for her.
Amen.