Bible Text: Ephesians 5:22-23 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living |
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church… Ephesians 5:22-23
When Southern Baptists adopted a position paper stating that wives are to “submit graciously” to their husbands, it created far more controversy than if Paul had inadvertently taken a ham sandwich into a synagogue. Seeing relationships between husbands and wives disintegrate into a shouting stand-off, the denomination reasserted what Paul wrote to the Ephesians, that God has established an order when it comes to leadership in the family and that wives are to submit to their husbands as unto the Lord (see Ephesians 5:22- 24).
I wasn’t surprised when the world didn’t get it. The secular press jumped on the issue blowing it all out of proportion, depicting husbands as dictators who wanted their women pregnant, barefooted, and in the kitchen—a combination of domestic servant and sex-slave. The world never accepts biblical principles nor can we expect them to understand them. Writing to the Corinthians, Paul said that the natural or unregenerated person doesn’t understand the things of the Spirit of God.
A seminary professor of mine once said that text without context is pretext, and that’s where this whole issue goes astray. Paul, who incidentally would have refuted the position that it’s up to the reader to decide what’s important and what’s not, went on record saying that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God” (2 Timothy 3:16).
Why so much confusion as to what God’s order is? The word which Paul used is a Greek word which was a combination of two words: hupo—a preposition meaning under, and tasso—a verb which meant to stand. Hence, when someone was in subjection, he stood under the authority of one to whom had been given greater authority than his. It had nothing to do whatsoever with inequalities of any kind. It never meant one was better than the other, had more intelligence than the other, or knew more about leadership . But it did mean every soldier had differing responsibilities, and each was accountable to someone higher in rank than he was.
Immediately before the directive to women, Paul stresses the fact that both husbands and wives are to be submissive to each other, and he uses the same word which he later directs specifically to wives. When husbands and wives are quick to defer to the other, to be sensitive to each other’s needs and to strive to meet them, they are doing exactly what Paul ordered.
The specific direction to women is his way of saying, “Men, I want you to lead the way. I hold you responsible for the welfare of your wife and children.” So women, let them lead. Zig Zigler says that a parade of only two vehicles will result in a traffic jam until you decide which one is going to lead the way.
Speaking of leadership, I’m reminded of the comment of Margaret Thatcher, who said that when someone has to stand up and say, “I’m the leader,” he’s not the leader. If someone holds a gun on you, it’s amazing how cooperative and submissive you become, but when you really love someone and know he loves you the same way, it’s easy to defer to that person and let him lead the way. That’s the point Paul was really striving to get across.
Resource reading: Ephesians 5:15-33
