Monday, March 16, 2009

Unclouding the Concept of Submission

Most people have a cloudy concept of submission, especially within marriage. That's why it is so rarely practiced within the home, and perhaps why it is so disliked by wives. When a wife hears or reads Ephesians 5:22, which says, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as unto the Lord," they instinctively react with self preservation, fearing that they will be dominated by an overbearing husband. From our previous discussion, we learned that this is part of the curse. It was not God's original intention for the home. And our purpose is not to live in and perpetuate the curse, but to roll back the curse in our homes.

But if people have the wrong concept of submission, what is wrong with what they have been taught? And what is the correct Biblical teaching? The word for submit as found in Ephesians 5:22 is hupotasso. It is a compound of two Greek words - hupo, which means under, and tasso, which means to order. Thus the word simply means to place in an orderly fashion. That sounds like a great concept for marriages doesn't it - to have things nice and orderly?

But the problem comes when the original Greek usage is brought incorrectly into consideration. Hupotasso was first a military term meaning to rank or line up under. The corporal would line up under the sergeant, and the private would line up under the corporal. But, just because that's how it works in the military doesn't make it a very attractive definition for the home. Who wants a marriage patterned after the military?

No wonder wives rebel if all they are ever taught is that their husband is the drill instructor while she is the buck private who has to jump at his every command. If not, she gets yelled at, screamed at, intimidated, threatened, and have to do push ups. Who wants a relationship like that? That any woman would willing get married if that was what marriage was like is truly amazing. But it isn't - at least, it's not supposed to be.

May I remind you, that wasn't God's original intention for marriage. That kind of relationship (a drill instructor husband with a dominated, groveling wife) arose because of the curse. It is exactly what Ephesians 5 is trying to correct. Submission like that isn't going back to Eden, but it is perpetuating the status quo of the curse. Yet, that's exactly how I have heard Ephesians 5;22 taught. BUT THAT'S JUST PLAIN WRONG!

No! God calls wives to submit, not to a drill instructor sergeant, but to a loving husband obeying the command of Ephesians 5:25, "Husbands, love your wives as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her." This husband will love his wife so much, he would die for her. If he loved her that much, he would willing serve her in life. The wife's submission is not to men in general, but to her own husband - the one man she has chosen from all the men in the world to love and serve, and who has chosen her as the one woman in all the world he will love and serve with his very life. Submission, therefore, has to be understood in the the context of this passage, in the context of mutual sacrificial love. For the wife to voluntarily respond to and submit to him isn't slavery, buy a joy.

No comments:

Post a Comment