Submission

I have been wanting to write this post for a very long time now, but life has been so busy.

Submission is such a hard word it seems.

Submit

–verb (used with object)

1.to give over to the power or authority of another used reflexively).

2.to subject to some kind treatment or influence.

3. to present for the approval, consideration, or decision of another or others:

to submit a plan; to submit an application.

4. to state or urge with deference; suggest or propose (usually followed by a clause):

I submit that full proof should be required.

-verb (used without object)

5.to yield oneself to the power or authority of another:

to submit to a conqueror.

6.to allow oneself to be subjected to some kind of treatment:

to submit to chemotherapy.

7.to defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision, etc.:

I submit to your superior judgment.

We read through definitions of submit and it sounds so horrible. To give over or yield to the power or authority of another? It seems that we will be so helpless. When I read these definitions it makes me want to say, "Ummm...I don't think so, there is no way I am going to let someone else have power over me." I wonder if satan hopes that is what we will think. I wonder if he is glad that the bible tells us wives to submit to our husbands, knowing it would be very difficult for us to do.

Ephesians 5:21-24 (New International Version)

Instructions for Christian Households

²¹ Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

²² Wives, 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. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

Why do we believe that we can give our lives over to Christ and submit to Him, without following the rest of these verses and submit to our husbands? How many people get upset reading that the husband is the head of the wife, just like Christ is the head of the church? Are we, as wives, not really accepting Christ as head of the church if we are not accepting our husbands as the head of us? We can always list instances where wives were totally ruled by an unfair husband, who used this verse to be cruel to his wife. There will always be people who use verses of the bible to get what they want, but should we ever use that as our excuse not to do what the bible tells us to do? If I am following the bible and submitting to my husband like Christ has told me to do, then it will not be me that will face judgment from God if my husband uses that power to rule over me, it will be my husband, because he did not follow the next set of verses in Ephesians.

Ephesians 5:25-30

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.

We can see here, that the husbands are to love the wives as Christ loved the church and died for the church. This is huge! It almost seems easy for me as a wife, all I have to do is submit to my husband, but my husband has to give up himself to me, like Christ did for the church. That seems like an impossible task, I am not even sure how you would know that you were doing it right. If God is holding our husbands to this kind of standard and only asking us to submit to a man who should be treating us this way, then why are we not doing it?

The example that comes to my mind of a submissive wife, is Sarai.

Genesis 12:10-13

¹⁰ Now there was a famine in the land, and Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe. ¹¹ As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, “I know what a beautiful woman you are. ¹² When the Egyptians see you, they will say, ‘This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me but will let you live. ¹³ Say you are my sister, so that I will be treated well for your sake and my life will be spared because of you.”

What husband asks his wife to pretend to be his sister? Did he not stop to think that possibly the Pharaoh might think to ask for her as his wife? What husband wants to give his wife to another man? Granted, he was doing this because he thought he was protecting himself, which just shows that men mess up. Abram had been chosen by God, because God wanted to choose him, not because of anything that Abram had done to deserve it. Yet, even Abram had moments where his faith faltered and he messed up. Sarai went along with Abram's plan and did what he told her to do. She submitted to her husband. Sure we can say that it was the culture of the time and she did not have a choice. I really believe that Abram loved Sarai and we can see later that she does have a voice with him and he does listen to her when she wants something, so I believe she could have protested this plan of his. She didn't though and this is how God took care of her for submitting to her husband.

Genesis 12:14-20

¹⁴ When Abram came to Egypt, the Egyptians saw that Sarai was a very beautiful woman. ¹⁵ And when Pharaoh’s officials saw her, they praised her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into his palace. ¹⁶ He treated Abram well for her sake, and Abram acquired sheep and cattle, male and female donkeys, male and female servants, and camels.

¹⁷ But the LORD inflicted serious diseases on Pharaoh and his household because of Abram’s wife Sarai. ¹⁸ So Pharaoh summoned Abram. “What have you done to me?” he said. “Why didn’t you tell me she was your wife? ¹⁹ Why did you say, ‘She is my sister,’ so that I took her to be my wife? Now then, here is your wife. Take her and go!” ²⁰ Then Pharaoh gave orders about Abram to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and everything he had.

God knew that Abram messed up, so he protected Sarai in the midst of the mess that Abram made. I know this story is in the Old Testament before Ephesians, but to me it really is a good model of how, as a wife, we should be submitting to our husbands, recognizing them as the head of us, because we know that God is there to protect us if our husbands mess up. And by submitting to our husbands, we are really submitting our lives to Christ!