Understanding Submission
Posted By Lauren Davis On August 30, 2011 @ 12:00 am In Featured on Front Page,Good Lovin’,Parenting & Family,The Marquee
“Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands.” 1 Peter 3:1.
This scripture verse often brings up many different reactions among both
women and men. What does the word submission mean to you? Recently
Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann was asked this very question during
a Republican debate. Her response: “what submission means to us is… respect.
I respect my husband…and he respects me as his wife.”
Saint Paul gives us a little closer look in
Ephesians 5:22-24, “Wives, be subject to your husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church,
his body, and is himself its Savior. As the church is subject to Christ, so let wives
also be subject in everything to their husbands.”
The idea of wifely “submission” or wives being “subject to” their husbands
often leaves women feeling inferior. However, if we break the word
submission down, we can find a completely different understanding.
Submission breaks down into the prefix “sub” meaning under or below,
and the root word “mission” meaning a specific duty assigned to a person.
If you put these two words together, you find that submission means that the
wife is called to be under the mission of her husband.
What is the mission of her husband? What specific duty is given to husbands?
“Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up
for her.” Eph. 5:25. The mission of every husband is to love his wife—
to lay down his life for her, as Christ did for the Church. From this perspective,
submission should be something that every woman does happily because
it is really all about allowing her husband to love her.
Although this sounds like an easy task, accepting true, sacrificial love is
much more difficult than you think. In order for the wife to really allow her
husband to love her, she must abandon her own insecurities and the invisible
walls she has put up around her heart. She must let go of the fear that
her husband might not love her the right way, and instead give herself to
him completely.
The wife must trust that her husband will lead her closer to Christ
and help her get to heaven. Of course, this trust is something that
the husband earns through the constancy of which he strives after
his mission. Every husband should be seeking to love his wife with
a self-sacrificing love in which he surrenders his pride,
and instead seeks to do what is best for his wife.
The truth of the matter is that true submission is incredibly challenging,
especially in today’s self addicted society. In fact, to really love in this
way is impossible without Christ! Jesus is the one who provides trust
for the wife as she lets go of her own will and allows her husband to love her,
through leading her and her family. It is Jesus who gives the husband the
strength to lead his wife, and the grace to surrender his
own will for the betterment of his family.
On the night before Jesus died, he said to his apostles,
“This is my body, which will be given for you.” Luke 22:19.
At this moment He shared a sneak peak of how much He loves us,
His church. Husbands and wives must follow the Lord’s example,
and lay down their bodies, their wills, and their entire lives for one another.
Then, and only then, will submission be lived out in the way it was intended.
This article originally appeared in the August 2011 edition of
The Family Encourager; a free monthly e-newsletter developed by the
Christian Center for Youth and Family Health. To begin receiving
The Family Encourager, please go to
http://www.ccyfh.org/newsletter-sign-up.html [1] to join the email list.
Lauren Davis is a wife and mother who resides in the Dayton, Ohio area. She and her husband are the founders of a new non-profit organization called the Christian Center for Youth and Family Health (visit www.ccyfh.org for more information). She is also in her fifth year of teaching at Ohio Connections Academy, a virtual charter school.
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