“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
This morning we begin to look at a passage that to some people is very controversial, and which is rejected by many. It involves the topic of submission.
From verse 21 we learned that Spirit-filled believers ought to submit to one another in the fear of God. Paul then goes on to give some examples of how submission should work in various contexts — husbands and wives, parents and children, employers and employees.
Verse 22 says, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.” The word submit means to subject myself to or subordinate myself to someone. In this case, the wife is to submit herself to her husband. It’s interesting to note here that it’s her own husband that it’s referring to, not someone else’s husband. That raises some interesting questions that we are not going to discuss much here. But here is one question: What if the wife’s employer has a different dress code from the husband? Something to think about.
Paul strengthens his teaching in this verse by saying that the wife should submit to her husband as she would to the Lord. How submissive should she be to the Lord? To that degree she should be subject to her own husband.
We’ll just take a step into the next verse to point out the grounding of this instruction. It is grounded in the fact that the husband is head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church. Notice the strength of this statement. To what degree do we believe that Christ is the head of the church? To that same degree, the husband is the head of the wife.
Colossians 3:18 says the same thing about wives being subject to their husbands. In 1 Timothy 2:11, the apostle says that in the church, the women should learn in silence in all subjection, and he does not allow that a woman should teach or have authority over the man.
In 1 Corinthians 14 we have the same teaching. In fact, in this passage we are told that if women have a question about the teaching in the church, they should ask their husband at home.
Now, we Bible-believing Christians have a decision to make. Do we believe that the Bible is the authoritative word of God, and that it is the rule of our conduct in the home and in the church? Or do we believe that the Bible contains general guidance on living a good life, but we don’t have to get too carried away with the details? If we believe that it is authoritative, then we need to apply it to this arena as much as in any other.
One thing to remember is that submission has nothing to do with worth, intelligence, or talent. In 1 Corinthians 11:3, Paul writes that the head of Christ is God? Does this imply any less ability or knowledge or talent in Christ than there is in God? No. Christ is co-equal with God the Father. But, there is a hierarchy, for want of a better word, that exists even in the God-head. There is no conflict or jealousy or rebellion in the relationship between and among the members of the Trinity. It should be the same way in the home and in the church when it comes to husband and wife. In fact, in this same verse in 1 Corinthians 11 where it is said that the head of Christ is God, it says that the head of the woman is man. In the home there is the same co-equal value, worth, and importance in the wife as in the husband. But the roles and responsibilities are different. Even in normal secular organizations there has to be a hierarchy of responsibility and direction so that the organization can operate smoothly and orderly. Someone has to be able to make the final decision as to the direction of the organization, in this case, the home and family. And God has given that responsibility to the man.
Next time we will finish commenting on verses 23 and 24.
Exported from Logos Bible Software, 10:03 AM September 29, 2021.