Home | Marriage
Ephesians 5: 21-22 Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Submit means to 'To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another.' The very term, 'submit,' seems to raise our hackles. We want to be our 'own person' and in total control of our 'own' decisions. And, yet, we submit all the time. We submit to the laws of the land. We submit to the demands of work, the boss, school attendance, the coach, the teachers, opening and closing hours for stores and the list could go on and on. In reality, our submission is voluntary. True, there are consequences if we do not submit, but it is still voluntary on our part. However, submission makes for a smoothly run society. Someone has rightly said, "If a person will not submit to the 'right' authority, they will submit to the wrong one." Take for instance the boy or girl who refuses to submit to their parents and yet will submit to their peers or the gang. How about the wife who refuses to submit to her husband but will submit to her friends or another man? Or the person who refuses to submit to the law but is then forced to submit to officials? Oftentimes husbands quote verse 22 to wives just to get their own way while totally neglecting verse 21. Sorry, guys, you can't use one without the other. They are companions. Submission taken out of context and used as a weapon for self-will is no longer submission. It is then called domination. On several occasions I've had wives express their anger and outrage saying that their husbands were requiring them to submit to sinful, illegal or pornographic activity, using verse 21 as a 'proof' text to gain their co-operation. Sorry folks but that is blatant misquoting and misuse of scripture. 1st of all there is to be mutual submission, then wives submit as unto the Lord. Never will the Lord ask one to submit to sin. Therefore the wife (or husband as the case may be) has every right and responsibility to refuse to submit to such a request on the grounds that the Lord would never make a request of that nature. Even the laws of our land recognize the wife's (or husband's) responsibility to not go along with a husband (or wife's) requests when what is being asked is wrong. What Paul had in mind was the mutual pulling together in a marriage relationship. Marriages do not function well when two heads are trying to control the situation. When husbands and wives realize that if they will talk things over, each sharing their opinion and listening to the opinion of the other, there can be a mutual sharing in that relationship. If a decision cannot be reached, then the wife is asked to submit to the decision of her husband. He, as the family head (leader), then takes the full responsibility for that decision. James 4: 7 - 10 "Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up."
Article Source: http://christian-topics.info
Willetta is a former retired pastor and author of three websites. she lives with her husband of 54 years. She teaches the flagship SS class of her local church. Her websites are www.teachmethyways.org/ www.successwithkids.org/ www.theseedsower.org/
Please Rate this Article
5 out of 54 out of 53 out of 52 out of 51 out of 5
Not yet Rated
