Called to Submission
Opening Prayer
Merciful Father, I am wanted, loved, approved and cherished by You. My spirit is lifted as I face today.
Read EPHESIANS 5:21–33
21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for 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.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
New International Version (NIV)
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Meditate
Paul shows us how to find the resources in Christ to live for Christ in the place where we are.
Think Further
These verses, sadly, bring to mind a couple I visited many years ago. The man was a leader in the local church. He welcomed me at the door, but the moment I saw his wife I was disturbed. She almost seemed to be cowering. Quickly I understood why, as he gave brusque orders to make tea and bring it to us. Apologetically, she busied herself in the background. Of course, he may not have justified his behavior by verse 22, but if he did he grossly misunderstood Paul’s point. Submission here is never about bullying. How could a letter with teaching about equality (Eph. 2:11–22) and humility justify that (Eph. 4:2)?
No, submission is a principle which comes out of “reverence for Christ” (21) and treats everyone with love. People filled with the Spirit give up their rights in order to value others. Richard Foster calls this “revolutionary subordination,” and it runs throughout God’s new order. Christians have different views on applying this. Paul wrote at a time when house rules for families were common. Now, because of Jesus, he teaches that these relationships are transformed. The husband’s role of headship is to be exercised with love that is so gracious that it can be compared with the way Christ loves the church. Indeed, wives submit to their husbands “as the church submits to Christ” (24) and husbands love “just as Christ loved the church” (25). Six times in the Greek the husband is told to love—and the word is “agape”—the highest form of Christly love. Nothing could be further from bullying.
All this may seem far from many contemporary marriage patterns. Paul sees this as the best pattern, with a high view of marriage that not only asks husband and wife to commit utterly to each other (31) but parallels the relationship with Christ and the church. Where’s the warrant to depart from God’s plan?
Apply
Christ’s love led him to die for us. What would it mean for a husband or wife to love their spouse in this way?
Closing prayer
Father God, You call me into your family. Help me to understand the vital need for revolutionary subordination and agape love in all of my Christian relationships.
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