Emily Letts wrote this week: "I am grateful that I can share my story and inspire other women to stop the guilt,". Her decision was to abort her child and post a video of it for the world. http://thepoint.breakpoint.org/tp-home/blog-archives/blog-archives/entry/4/25179
What stuck so many people was her smiles and giggles during the so called "procedure" of abortion. People questioned how she could overcome that natural impulse that a mother has in protecting her child to be glee on killing her child. In a drive for autonomy and independence, there are so many voices that tell women to just make choices for themselves: "think of yourself first, regardless of anything else". If there is one concept that would be completely antithetical to this common drive for complete independence, it is submission.
Most people recoil to the concept of submission because they do not comprehend it, but misunderstand the basic purpose, misunderstand the procedure, and misunderstand the true picture of what it represents. Submission done for a godly purpose, the right way for the right reason, shows the true nature of godly love. It best aids in the total wellbeing of all parties involved and uniquely pictures the type of love that God shows us and the type of love that the members of the Godhead have for each other. It is a theological lesson and a supernatural force for change that can revolutionize our individual, familial, communal and societal lives.
In showing how submission can be a godly force for revolutionary love, in Colossians 3, the Apostle Paul explains:
1) How should a Mother Act? (Colossians 3:18a) 2) To Whom should a Mother Act this Way? (Colossians 3:18b) 3) Why should a Mother Act this Way? (Colossians 3:18c)
1) How should a Mother Act? (Colossians 3:18a)
Colossians 3:18a [18]Wives, submit (to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord). (ESV)
Wives Submit/Be subject to is from hupotassô, it has the concept of putting oneself under (hupo) authority, not by compulsion, but willingly. The term is used in Luke 2:51 to refer to Jesus’ subjection to His parents. The wife’s submission is never to be forced on her by a demanding husband; it is the deference that a loving wife, conscious that her home (just as any other institution) must have a head (Vaughan, C. (1981). Colossians. In F. E. Gaebelein (Ed.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Ephesians through Philemon (Vol. 11, p. 218). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House.)
It is striking how often submission appears in the New Testament to describe how all Christians are to live. ‘Ordering our lives under’ another is a characteristic, it would seem, of the Christian life. We are to order our lives under God (Heb. 12:9; James. 4:7); under his law (it would seem from Rom. 8:7); under Christ (Eph. 5:24); under the governing authorities (Rom. 13:1, 5; Titus 3:1; 1 Pet. 2:13); under ministers of the gospel (1 Cor. 16:16); (servants) are to put themselves under their (overseers) (Titus 2:9; 1 Pet. 2:18); young men under older men (1 Pet. 5:5); children under parents (Luke 2:51); and wives to your husbands (Eph. 5:22; Titus 2:5; 1 Pet. 3:1, 5 and of course Col. 3:18).( Douglas J. Moo, The Letters to the Colossians and to Philemon (Nottingham: Apollos, 2008), pp. 299–300.)
Indeed there is the exhortation to all believers in Ephesians 5:21, which we will soon look at, to ‘submit to one another out of reverence for Christ’. On this basis, someone has reasonably argued that the New Testament teaches a ‘subordinationist ethic’.( R.C. Lucas, Fullness and Freedom: The message of Colossians and Philemon (Leicester: Inter-Varsity Press, 1980), p. 158. )
This is the way in which the new humanity is constituted. It is the way in which the disintegration of human society is to be redeemed: not by individual liberation from restraints and obligations to others, but by each one gladly placing himself or herself under the ones God has placed ‘over’ us (Woodhouse, J. (2011). Colossians and Philemon: So Walk in Him (p. 220). Ross-shire, Great Britain: Christian Focus.).
In both 1 Corinthians 15:27–28 and Ephesians 1:22, the verb looks to the time when all things in the universe are made subject to Christ and God in eternal glory. “subjection” means “subordination,” not “subjugation” (Dunn, J. D. G. (1996). The Epistles to the Colossians and to Philemon: a commentary on the Greek text (p. 247). Grand Rapids, MI; Carlisle: William B. Eerdmans Publishing; Paternoster Press.
Please turn to 1 Timothy 2 (p.991)
How directly does this submission relate to motherhood? How is giving birth a picture of this submission? What follows from a woman giving birth to a child that leads to a greater revelation of salvation itself?
Beginning first in the context of a local Church, Paul applies the principle of submission to motherhood:
1 Timothy 2:11-15 [11]Let a woman learn quietly with all submissiveness. [12]I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; rather, she is to remain quiet. [13]For Adam was formed first, then Eve; [14]and Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor. [15]Yet she will be saved through childbearing--if they continue in faith and love and holiness, with self-control. (ESV)
• From verse 11, Women are not to hold a teaching office in the church but are to submit and defer to male leadership (see notes on vv. 12, 13, 14).
• In verse 12, this statement is given in the context of Paul’s apostolic instructions to the church for the ordering of church practice when the church is assembled together.
• Verse 13, introduces the biblical basis for the prohibition of v. 12. Paul indicates that the prohibition is based on two grounds, the first being the order of creation (Adam was formed first), and the second being the deception of Eve (v. 14). Let we think was we exist in unique times, ancient inscriptions and literature speak of a number of well-educated women in that area of Asia Minor at that time (cf. also Luke 8:1–3; 10:38–41; John 11:21–27; Acts 18:2–3, 11, 18–19, 26; 2 Tim. 4:19). (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 2328). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.)
• Finally verse 15, applies this all to motherhood. Paul teaches here that although a woman precipitated the Fall and women bear that responsibility, yet they may be preserved from that stigma through childbearing. The rescue, the delivery, the freeing of women from the stigma of having led the race into sin happens when they bring up a righteous seed. The pain associated with childbirth was the punishment for the woman’s sin (Gen. 3:16), but the joy and privilege of child rearing delivers women from the stigma of that sin (MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1995). 1 Timothy (pp. 88–89). Chicago: Moody Press.).
Illustration: When thinking about this role perhaps the illustration of a football team will help. A football team needs a captain. Not all players are captains, but all have skills and abilities essential to the team’s success. Nevertheless, they need to submit to the captain for the purpose of the game. When they do so, the best results will be achieved. So with wives in the marriage relationship: when they fulfill their God-ordained role, a successful marriage is more likely (McNaughton, I. S. (2006). Opening up Colossians and Philemon (p. 72). Leominster: Day One Publications.).
2) To Whom should a Mother Act this Way? (Colossians 3:18b)
Colossians 3:18b [18](Wives, submit) to your husbands, (as is fitting in the Lord). (ESV)
Paul’s word to mothers in general, and wives in particular, is be submissive to your husbands. They do not submit to some detached, impersonal authority. Rather, they submit to the man with whom they have an intimate, personal, vital relationship. The fact that this submission imperative to your own husbands is in the passive voice presupposes that Christian husbands will fulfill their divinely appointed role (Mills, M. S. (1993). Colossians: A Study Guide to Paul’s epistle to the Saints at Colossae (Col 3:18). Dallas: 3E Ministries.).
Please turn to Ephesians 5 (p.978)
All the attacks on this straightforward principle for behavior deal devastating wounds to the marriage. When a woman submits to the loving leadership of her husband and follows God’s intention for her, she is fulfilled and so is the husband. Efforts to reverse or confuse the duties of wife and husband destroy the blessing each is to be to the other.
The parallel exhortation in Ephesians expands this simple command:
Ephesians 5:21-24 [21]submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. [22]Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. [23]For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. [24]Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. (ESV)
• The submission of wives is not like the obedience children owe parents, nor does this text command all women to submit to all men (to your own husbands, not to all husbands!). Both genders are equally created in God’s image (Gen. 1:26–28) and heirs together of eternal life (Gal. 3:28–29). This submission is in deference to the ultimate leadership of the husband for the health and harmonious working of the marriage relationship.
• Verse 23–24 specify the grounds of the wife’s submission to her husband and is modeled on Christ’s headship over the church. Just as Christ’s position as head of the church and its Savior does not vary from one culture to another, neither does the headship of a husband in relation to his wife and her duty to submit to her husband in everything. “Head” (Gk. kephalç) here clearly refers to a husband’s authority over his wife (Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (pp. 2271–2272). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.).
It is helpful to note several misconceptions about submission. First, submission does not imply inferiority. Galatians 3:28 clearly affirms that spiritually there is no difference between male and female. It is not suggested here or anywhere else in the NT that the woman is naturally or spiritually inferior to the man, or the wife to the husband (Bruce, F. F. (1984). The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (p. 164). Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.).
Paul is not speaking ontologically, that is, regarding the essence of personhood. There is a functional subordination, but an essential equality. Differences of roles to accomplish specific functions do not call for the categories of superior and inferior. It is better to speak of “suited for” and “not suited for.” Such an economic division is found in God, where the Father, Son, and Spirit each have different operations (functional subordination), but they are all equally divine . The Father plans, the Son accomplishes, and the Spirit applies. Each, however, is fully God. Jesus submitted to the Father during His life on earth, yet He was in no way inferior to Him. (Melick, R. R. (1991). Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (Vol. 32, pp. 312–313). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers. ).
Second, submission is not absolute. If a husband should ever ask his wife to do something which in her conscience (illumined by Scripture) she knows to be wrong, she has the right and the duty to disobey her husband (Acts 5:29) (Hendriksen, W., & Kistemaker, S. J. (1953–2001). Exposition of Colossians and Philemon (Vol. 6, p. 169). Grand Rapids: Baker Book House.).
Finally, the husband’s authority is not to be exercised in an authoritative, overbearing manner. The wife’s submission takes place in the context of a loving relationship.
Illustration: For motherhood in general, and marriage in particular, many women have a problem with submission because they think, “But I am smarter than my husband. I make more money than my husband. I am more educated than my husband. I have more common sense than my husband. I can’t submit to him.”
Well, let’s suppose an eighteen-wheeler is trying to merge onto the freeway. Let’s also assume that a compact car is coming down the expressway so it has the right-of-way. The eighteen-wheeler has to yield. Now, the eighteen-wheeler may have more clout than the compact car but the compact car has the right-of-way. Can the eighteen-wheeler say, “Because I have more than you have, you stop on the highway and let me on”? If there is an accident, it is the eighteen-wheeler that is going to be at fault, because even though it’s got more stuff, it is operating illegitimately.
Submission has nothing to do with how much you bring to the table. Submission has nothing to do with how much education, how much clout, or how much notoriety a woman has; it has to do with God’s ordained role (Evans, T. (2009). Tony Evans’ book of illustrations: stories, quotes, and anecdotes from more than 30 years of preaching and public speaking (p. 313). Chicago, IL: Moody Publishers.).
3) Why should a Mother Act this Way? (Colossians 3:18c)
Colossians 3:18c [18] (Wives, submit to your husbands), as is fitting in the Lord. (ESV)
Wives are to submit to their husbands because it is fitting in the Lord. The word “fitting” has the idea of proper as a duty. The verb fitting (ançkei) refers to any act considered “proper” or suitable for its subjects. That is, the propriety of the wife’s submission to her husband or of the husband’s love for his wife is gauged by the new realities found in the Lord. (Wall, R. W. (1993). Colossians & Philemon. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.)
Please turn to 1 Peter 3 (p.1015)
By employing the statement, Paul made it clear that such submission is an outworking of the lordship of Christ. Submission is a matter of Christian commitment. It comes with salvation. Voluntarily taking a position of submission is a matter of a wife’s relationship to the Lord, not to her husband. It is “fitting in the Lord.” (Melick, R. R. (1991). Philippians, Colossians, Philemon (Vol. 32, p. 312). Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers.).
1 Peter 3:1-6 [3:1]Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, [2]when they see your respectful and pure conduct. [3]Do not let your adorning be external--the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear-- [4]but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious. [5]For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, [6]as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening. (ESV)
• The conduct that a godly mother has in a household can have a tremendous impact. It is easy for a woman to compare herself with others on what she owns, where she works, how many kids she has, or in the outward successes of her children. But is should be obvious that God cares most about her own heart. Through her godly character she can win her husband to Christ and be that spiritual example to her children.
• In pointing here to Sarah from Genesis 18, as Sarah was beyond child bearing years, God supernaturally enabled what was humanly impossible. You may never have had children, lost a child or have all your children out of the house. You can still be a godly mother. You can still influence the younger mothers of today through mentoring and discipleship.
Motherhood itself is one of self-sacrifice and submission. Mothers are naturally driven to put others before themselves and this selfless love is for a particular purpose. Mothers are naturally driven do everything in their power to ensure the complete wellbeing of everyone in the family, including themselves. A Godly mother not only can show biblical selfless love, but be the godly influence in their household.
(Format note: Some base commentary from MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1992). Colossians (pp. 165–167). Chicago: Moody Press.)
