Marriage Part 2: Submit, Honor & Love Series

Marriage Part 2: Submit, Honor & Love

Scripture: Genesis 3:16; Ephesians 5:22-24; Titus 2:3-5

Good morning Strangers Rest. This is part two of my series on marriage. This morning, I will be addressing this message to the women and the title for part two is “Submit, Honor and Love.” I do understand that whenever a woman hears the word “submit” coming from a man it generates feelings that might not necessarily be positive or motivating. However, I hope that at the conclusion of this message you will understand more clearly that wives submitting to their husbands is what God commands in His Word and is not negative in any aspect. But most importantly, I want the wives and women hearing this message to understand that Godly submission does not cancel out the truth that, spiritually, husbands and wives are equals in God’s kingdom. As a matter of record, the Bible also tells husbands to submit to their wives. I will go into more detail on this next week but I want to share a personal story about this so you understand what I am saying.

I have told you that I joined the Air Force after two years of community college because that was the only way I could finish my college degree. After three years of attending classes in the evenings after working all day, I graduated with my undergraduate degree. When I completed that degree I had a little over two years left on my second enlistment so I decided I would complete a graduate degree. I was halfway through that degree when I experienced burnt out. So, one night I came home from class and announced to Nikki that I was done. I was tired as it had been four years since I had been taking classes at night after work. We had only been married five years at that time and were still figuring things out as to what our marriage would become but Nikki spoke up. She asked me what I was feeling and why I wanted to drop out. I explained everything to her as best as I could at that moment.

Nikki then told me that I could not drop out. She explained clearly that if I dropped out that I would never go back. When I finally realized that she was right, I stayed with it. Because I took her advice, because I submitted to her wisdom in that situation, I had the career outside of the military that I did. I was hired in the pharmaceutical industry during a time when there were few people who looked like me. I was hired initially because I had finished my graduate degree which was a plus in the application process. If I had dropped out, chances would have been good that I would not have had the career that I did. That one decision, to submit to what I now know was Godly wisdom given to me through my wife, is why I am standing before you today. My career brought me to Kansas. The decision to abandon my college studies that God, through Nikki, talked me out of making, impacted the rest of our lives together and it continues to do so today. Now imagine if I had stood on the foundation that I was the head of the house, and it was her responsibility to follow my lead.

What you’re going to hear this morning is that, just as the husband is commanded to leave his father and mother and cleave to and love his wife as Christ loved the Church, the wife is to submit, honor and love her husband in her service to Christ. This will become clearer later in the message. So, ladies, please do not get so caught up in the negative connation of that one word “submit” that you miss what the Spirit is saying today.

Our foundation Scriptures for this message come from Genesis 3:16, Ephesians 5:22-24 and Titus 2:3-5. I will be reading these from the Amplified Bible. Genesis 3:16 says, “To the woman He said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth; in pain you will give birth to children; yet your desire and longing will be for your husband, and he will rule [with authority] over you and be responsible for you.’”

Ephesians 5:22-24 says, “(22) Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as [a service] to the Lord. (23) For the husband is head of the wife, as Christ is head of the church, Himself being the Savior of the body. (24) But as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything [respecting both their position as protector and their responsibility to God as head of the house].”

Lastly Titus 2:3-5 says, “(3) Older women similarly are to be reverent in their behavior, not malicious gossips nor addicted to much wine, teaching what is right and good, (4) so that they may encourage the young women to tenderly love their husbands and their children, (5) to be sensible, pure, makers of a home [where God is honored], good-natured, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.”