Bible Text: Selected Scripture | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: God’s Design for Marriage

Recap of 11/3/13:

1.  The first of four Biblical responsibilities of a woman in marriage is to respect and respond to her husband’s leadership and conversely to not compete with him for leadership of the family (Ephesians 5:22-24; Colossians 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1-6).

2.  The word translated “submit” is the Greek word “hupotasso” and is a military term meaning “to line up in ranks” or “to place oneself under another’s authority.”  It is a term which has to do with order; not value, ontological being, superiority, or equality.  It is a functional distinction. 

3.  “The exhortation [to submit] is to mutual love and devotion, and in no way suggests that a man has a right to make a slave of his wife.” (Halley).  “The man who attempts to subjugate his wife to himself has certainly missed the biblical balance.” (Litfin)  “But submission does not mean inferiority.  It means that she recognizes that her husband is the head of the home and responds to him accordingly without usurping his authority to herself.” (Hoehner)

4.  Observations and summary about the Biblical teaching of submission in marriage:

-it is prompted by a husband’s unselfish love

-there is no implication of inferiority in submission, there are different functions in marriage but mutual dependency

-it is speaking of the marriage relationship (a wife submits to her “own” husband, literal translation) not all women to all men, the context is marriage

-it is voluntary, not forced.  The verb is Greek middle voice.  Submission is something the wife does for herself, “as to the Lord.”

-it calls for a wife to trust God to overrule her husband in unwise decisions and protect her.