Posts Tagged ‘Christian Marriage’

Mutual Submission

The Key to understanding the roles of headship and mutual submission is found in Ephesians 5:21, ” and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” Most sermons, books, lectures, and Sunday School lessons omit this small but profoundly important verse in their teaching on the roles of husband and wife.

One of the reasons for its omission is that bible publishers tend to put a paragraph heading in between verses 21 and 22 such as “marriage like Christ and the church,” (new American Standard bible.)  The problem with this is that it gives one the impression that verse 21 is not related to the subsequent verses. The result is quite misleading.

What Paul is saying is that everything that follows verse 21 about the relationship between husband and wife is to be understood and lived out in context of mutual submission; the wife is to be submissive to her husband and the husband is to be submissive to the wife.

Paul wants us to understand the distinctiveness of these roles, not in terms of superior to inferior, but rather in terms of servant to servant, submitter to submitter.

The phrase “be subject” is from a Greek word used in a military sense meaning
to arrange or rank under.”   The essence of this concept is the relinquishing of your rights to another person.  In the context of our study, mutual submission means that the husband is to relinquish his rights to his wife.

James asks us, What is the source of conflicts and quarrels among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members? (James 4:1). Most of the statistics listed above are due to men who determine to satisfy their own pleasures at the expense of others.

Pastor Kirt Eure – Mutual Submission

Gods Blueprint

No Biblical understanding of the role of the husband in marriage can ignore Paul’s admonitions found in Gods Blueprint Ephesians 5:21-33.  Unfortunately, these verses have, in recent decades, been more akin to a powder keg than the comforting beacon of light which Paul intended.

Ephesians 5, for some, has been a text exploited to keep women in a position of subservience.  For others, it has been a text to rebel against, seeing the author as little more than a male-chauvinist.

Many Churches have avoided teaching on this passage due to the inherent controversy. As a result, many believers are unfamiliar with Paul’s teaching of  Gods Blueprint , consequently, find it hard to accept.

At first glance, the passage appears to support an unhealthy view of marital relations which offends our “modern” sensibilities. A detailed study, however, reveals an ingenious synergy and complementarity in the roles of husband and wife that could only find its origin in the mind of God.

Gods Blueprint Ephesians 5:21-33 – By Pastor Kirt Eure

The origin of the battle of the sexes dates back Adam and ever and their sin, Adam and Eve experienced different consequences; their sin affected them each in distinct and unique manner. The roles assigned to them by God serve the purpose of countering and healing these consequences.
Loving headship and willing submission are the means of regaining the marital harmony caused by Adam and Eve’s disobedience.
These differing consequences are summed up in God’s statement to Eve:

The origin of the battle of the sexes

“Your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you” (Genesis 3:16).

• Eve and women. “Desire” in Genesis 3:16 does not refer to sexual or loving romantic desire, but rather, to a desire to “seek control over.” As a result of Eve’s disobedience, she will experience a toxic desire to usurp the authority of her husband. Chaucer, in his classic, Canterbury Tales, gives us a clear picture of female control as he presents the women of The Queen’s Court agreeing together that what women want most of all is to dominate their men. God’s remedy for women’s condition is submission. It is through Submission that the balance and harmony of marriage is regained.

• Adam and men. As a result of Adam’s own disobedience, he will experience a desire to “rule over” his wife (Genesis 3:16). The Hebrew word for “rule” is not the word used in Genesis 1:28. There it has a positive context. Here, “rule” represents a new, despotic type of authoritarianism contrary to God’s original design. Adam, and men for countless generations after him, would feel and act out a sinful desire to dominate women. History, unfortunately, is rife with examples of the subjugation of women.

Needless to say, these are not examples of the God Ordained patter of male headship. They demonstrate the pervasive effects the Fall has had on men throughout the centuries.

God’s remedy for The Role Of The Husband is loving headship as modeled by Christ’s loving headship of the Church. It is through loving headship that the balance and harmony of marriage is regained.

The Origin Of The Battle Of The Sexes -Pastor Kirt Eure