INTRODUCTION
I am going to venture into an area of teaching that is probably one of the most sensitive areas of teaching in the church and the society today.
It is an area in which there has been much abuse over the years. It is a subject that has been done a great injustice over the years.
Preachers of the Word of God have abused this subject. I just heard one at the Men’s Banquet at C.C.C.B. do it also.
The extreme feminist movement has abused this subject also.
The issue at hand is the one of subjection or as some Bibles have it, submission. Submission is a dirty word in our society. It is a dirty word because it is a misunderstood concept of the scriptures because of the abuse that it has taken.
Over the next four weeks as we look at submission, we will look at it in four areas:
1. Wives to husbands
2. Husbands to wives and Christ
3. Children to parents
4. Employees to employer
I hope that you know me well enough to know that I am not a Neanderthal when it comes to dealing with the subject of husband wife roles and relationships. I hope that you will not tune me out because of past abuses of the subject.
This subject is important, our family structure is falling apart, and we do not seem to know why. God gives us the formula for the happy home in these passages. We can tune them out or learn from them.
As you study Paul’s words to husbands and wives, remember that he was writing to believers. He was nowhere suggesting that women are inferior to men, or that all women must be in subjection to all men in every situation. The fact that he uses Christ and the church as his illustration is evidence that he has the Christian home in mind.
Today we will look at:
1. The Matter of Subjection
2. The Motive of Subjection
3. The Model of Subjection.
READ EPHESIANS 5:21-24
SERMON
THE MATTER OF SUBJECTION. Verses 21-22.
Colossians 3:18 Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
1. Paul applied the principle of harmony to husbands and wives (Eph. 5:21-33), parents and children (Eph. 6:1-4), and masters and servants (Eph. 6:5-9); and he began with the admonition that each submit to the other (Eph. 5:21). Does this suggest that the children tell the parents what to do, or that the masters obey the servants? Of course not! Submission has nothing to do with the order of authority, but rather governs the operation of authority, how it is given and how it is received.
2. Often Jesus tried to teach His disciples not to throw their weight around, or seek to become great at somebody else’s expense. Unfortunately, they failed to learn the lesson, and even at the Last Supper they were arguing over who was the greatest (Luke 22:24-27). When Jesus washed their feet, He taught them that the greatest is the person who uses his authority to build up people and not, like the Pharisees, to build up his authority and make himself important. We are to esteem others “more important than ourselves” (Rom 12:10; Phil. 2:1-4). By nature, we want to promote ourselves, but the Holy Spirit enables us to submit ourselves.
3. The word for “submission” or “be subject” is a military term meaning to be arranged under the authority of someone voluntarily. The same phrase is used in Romans 13 when dealing with the Christians role to the civil authority, we are submit ourselves to it.
4. Verse 21 of the passages tells those who are full of the Spirit to be subject to one another. We are to look out for others, and not ourselves.
5. The voice of the phrase “be subject” is middle, implying that one does it to themselves for their own benefit. KJV says “submitting yourself”. This catches the flavor of the passage.
6. Wives are to submit THEMSELVES, their husbands are not to do it for them.
a. The husband is not to try to get the upper hand. EXAMPLE OF FINANCES AT HOME.
b. Submission takes trust. Trust in your spouse and trust in God that He will be there to help clean up some of the messes that husbands will get you into.
7. People will try to say that Paul was a chauvinist, but in 1 Corinthians 11:3 Paul says, READ 1 CORINTHIANS 11:3, 8-12. Verse 23 of Ephesians
8. Paul takes us back to creation as the reason for the role of the wife. It is not cultural.
9. The wife is to submit to her husband, this does not make her a second class citizen, or a doormat. She is equal in God’s eyes.
10. One thing to remember is that men are suppose to love their wives like Christ loved the church, we will look at that next week.
11. It will be difficult at times to do this, but it is for the best interests of the family to do it.
THE MOTIVE OF SUBJECTION. Verse 22b-24.
1. The wife is to be motivated by the fact that it is God’s will for them to be subject to their own husbands.
a. Verse 22b. To the Lord.
b. God did not give exceptions to wives, all wives except…
2. READ TITUS 2:2-5. God’s Word will be dishonored by failing to submit.
a. The word the NASB translates dishonored is the same word that is translated “blasphemed”. Christianity will be discredited by not placing oneself into subjection. It is a command from God.
3. READ 1 PETER 3:1-6
a. A submissive wife can win over an unbelieving husband.
b. Holy women of God did it.
c. Sarah. Her husband was not perfect, but Sarah submitted to him and she was blessed.
4. The main reason though it that the husband is the functional head of the house as Christ is the head of the church.
a. This does not mean that the husband never listens to the wife. If he is loving her and trying to do what is in her best interests, then her will talk over things with her.
5. I think that submitting to the husband and allowing him to be the spiritual head of the house, will help keep him sharp in the scriptures. Maybe that is why 1 Corinthians tells the wife to seek her husband for answers to spiritual questions. It works in my house.
THE MODEL FOR SUBJECTION.
1. The ultimate model for subjection is Jesus Himself, who performed the supreme act of submission by giving His own sinless life to save a sinful world.
2. Notice that while Jesus was on earth, He did not take over the priesthood at the temple. He could have, He was more qualified to make the sacrifices than the priests were because He was sinless, they were not.
3. Jesus did not barge in and take over from the religious leaders.
4. Jesus did not resist arrest.
5. The point here is that there are things that wives will be better at than the husband, but she is not to just take it, Jesus didn’t. A wise loving husband will see where his wife is better than him and he will give her the responsibility. I am glad that I did not handle the money when we got married, we would have been in trouble. I caused my wife a lot of grief, but now I do it and we get a long just fine. She trusts my leadership in that area now.
CONCLUSION
Next week we will look at the responsibilities of the husband in the marriage relationship.
Wives are to be subject to their husbands, they are to do it voluntarily, the husband is not to force it on her.
The husband is not to take advantage of the wife, she is not your doormat!
Submission does not denote one person being better or lower than the other.
Jesus submitted himself to God, is Jesus inferior? I think not!
The wife who refuses to submit to her husband has a spiritual problem. God does not give exceptions. The wife is not obligated to follow her husband into sin though. Christians are to submit to the civil authorities as long as they are not contradicting to will of God. The same is true in the home.
A husband who is lost cannot expect his believing wife to not go to church, pray , or read her bible.
We husbands can make our wives duty before God so much easier if we are doing our duty before God. We will look at that next week!
