Page 61 - Family Life Student Textbook

Submit to your husband because God commands you to arrange yourself under your husband's authority.
When the Bible commands a wife to submit to her husband, it uses the present tense. This means that the
wife is to submit continually, not just occasionally. When some wives are asked about their submission to
their husband, they point back to some specific situation in which they submitted. But God wants the wife to
be in a continual active submission to her husband.

She is to submit regardless of how he acts. Just as the husband is to love his wife unconditionally, the wife is
to submit to her husband unconditionally.

Wives, how do you know if you are submitting? Ask your husband if he feels respect from you.

The command to submit is in the middle voice, meaning, I am to submit voluntarily to my husband myself. I
do the action to myself, then I come to you as my husband in a submissive spirit.

The command to submit is in the imperative mood, meaning I am to submit by my choice. This is an act of
obedience made by my will. Wives, we need to break the pride that rebels against our husband. We need to
confess it as sin and start obeying God.

David Dewitt has written, “Today I hear a lot about mutual submission in marriage.
Mutual submission is like up - down, white - black, good - bad. It's simply
impossible. If its submission, it's not mutual. If it's mutual, it's not submission….
Mutual means to ‘share things equally’ and submission means ‘for one to be under
the other.’ Mutual submission communicates that marriage is a 50-50 deal where
each partner is submissive to the other. That is, the husband is to show himself to
be under the wife and the wife is to show herself to be under the husband. All that
sounds good in our world, but it is totally contrary to the Bible.”

There are some in the church who have tried to change the meaning of submission on the part of the wife.
They teach that Ephesians 5:21 tells us to submit to one another in the fear of God. Then, when they read
verse 22 telling wives to submit to their own husbands as to the Lord, they add that verse twenty-one
teaches husbands to submit to their wives as well. This view is called egalitarianism, meaning that both
husband and wife are equal in submission, and therefore in shared authority over the family. But Ephesians
5:22-6:9 explain and illustrate what 5:21 means. Ephesians 5:22-33 instructs wives to submit to their own
husbands. Ephesians 6:1-4 instructs children to obey their parents. And it would be very hard to interpret
this passage to teach the both parents and children share the same authority and should submit equally to
one another. Ephesians 6:5-9 teaches bondservants to be obedient to their masters. These three examples
explain and illustrate how we are to submit to one another (5:21). So, rather than compromising the wife’s
submission to her husband, this passage affirms and illustrates it.

Reasons for Submission:

Submit to your husband because God commands you to do so. (Eph. 5:18-6:9)

Submit to your husband “as to the Lord” because it is “fitting in the Lord.”

Colossians 3:18 “Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.”

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