Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY
/
The Real Reason for Submission
The Real Reason for Submission
Mar 18, 2025 7:41 PM

  The Real Reason for Submission

  By: Jennifer Waddle

  Submit to one anotherout of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbandsas you do to the Lord.For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church,his body, of which he is the Savior. (Ephesians 5:21-23)

  I am sad at the way today's culture has distorted the roles of both husband and wife. Between strivings for control and misconceptions of what biblical submission really means lies a chasm of mistruths that stand in the way of healthy, godly marriages.

  I'd like to speak a word of wisdom to wives for a moment, encouraging them towards a heart of submission that seeks the will of God first. For if we cannot submit to the will of the Father, which is good, pleasing, and perfect, how will we ever find peace under the authority of our husbands?

  In turn, if I may encourage husbands, I'd like to remind them that being the head of their marriages, as Christ is the head of the church, is the most gentle, loving, protective role in the world. What a divine position you've been given! What a privilege! Please step into your role with both meekness and assurance.

  Oh, the beauty of God-ordained submission! It looks nothing like the world's battle for dominance. It doesn't compare to the petty and shallow conflicts that consume marriages today. Instead, God's blueprint lays out a clear and beautiful foundation of submission to one another out of devotion to Christ.

  And there, my friends, lies the real reason for submission — reverence for Christ.

  Once we wrap our minds around this biblical concept, and more importantly, envelop our hearts around it, we can rest assured that submission is the most pure and beautiful way a marriage can exist. No longer are we threatened by our husband's role. No longer are men confused about their place in the marriage. The relationship is made whole when both are living in reverence to Christ Jesus.

  If submission has been a contention in your marriage, please spend some time in Ephesians chapter 5. Ask God for wisdom and clarity concerning this misunderstood principle. Then, come together and determine to live out God's design for your marriage.

  Here are some things to consider as you move forward.

  When husbands have a clear picture of what Christ did for the church, they will better understand their loving and self-sacrificing role as head over their wives.When wives stop feeling threatened by their husband's God-given role as head over them, they will actually be empowered by the Holy Spirit to be strong and fruitful helpmates to their spouses.The word submit also means to acknowledge, surrender, relent, and yield. We acknowledge one another as beloved and cherished. We surrender to one another in love and grace. We relent our wills for the perfect will of the Father. And we yield to one another often, letting our agendas fall at the feet of Jesus.The real reason for submission isn’t to feel “less-than.” It’s to be fully devoted to Jesus Christ and live in reverence to Him. When we see submission in that light, it becomes a missional privilege rather than a dubious requirement.Please don't let the culture distort your view of the blessed roles in marriage. Prayerfully consider who you were created to be and accept it as a divine calling. There is great peace and contentment in godly submission.

  Jennifer Waddle is a Kansas girl, married to a Colorado hunk, with a heart to encourage. She is the author of several books, including Prayer WORRIER: Turning Every Worry into Powerful Prayer, and is a contributor for LifeWay, Crosswalk, Abide, and Christians Care International. Jennifer’s online ministry is EncouragementMama.com where “Discouragement Doesn’t Win.” She resides with her family near the foothills of the Rocky Mountains—her favorite place on earth.

  It's time we get real about marriage relationships! Join marriage coach, Dana Che, as she and her guests deliver witty, inspirational, real relationship talk from a faith-based perspective. New episodes of the Real Relationship Talk Podcast drop every Tuesday.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY
A subtle threat to freedom
Conventional understanding may tend to gloss over the distinction between the concepts munity or society and of state or government. Many in the popular media often use the munity, society, state, and government interchangeably. mon usage of these terms introduces a fallacy with potentially dire consequences. Communal or social obligations are those that all people have mon. This does not mean that every social obligation is, or should be, enforceable by the state or government. While honest debate may...
A primer for love: Personalist ethics
One need not search far to find the supreme ethic by which we should evaluate all of our actions. The holy Scripture is clear that we must love the Lord our God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our mind, and that we must love our neighbors as ourselves (Matt. 22:36, 39). Love for God and neighbor must serve as the basis for any ethics. Here I am primarily interested in examining the...
Christendom, Power, and Authority
The conceptual distinction between the exercise of authority and the exercise of power provides an essential guide to understanding the present and future status of Christendom, which has not been abolished but, rather, has taken on new forms in our times. The Second Vatican Council, in its document Lumen Gentium, clarified that the Kingdom of God is not a place or a government, much less an earthly end-state arrived at through the political process. Instead, it is “established by...
Free Religion
It is worth remembering what George Washington said in his farewell address about religion: “Of all the dispositions and habits which lead to political prosperity, religion and morality are indispensable supports …. Where is the security for property, for reputation, for life, if the sense of religious obligation desert the oaths which are the instruments of investigation in courts of justice? And let us with caution indulge the supposition that morality can be maintained without religion. Whatever may be...
Categorical imperatives impair Christianity in culture
Contrary to the libertine assumptions pervading our contemporary society, property rights, liberty, and even life itself – the bases of any functional economic order – do not exist as ends in themselves, but rather as elements within a greater framework of religious faith and morality. Historically, Christianity established this religious and moral framework for Western culture. Today, to the extent a larger framework is recognized at all, contemporary advocates, both Christian and secular, tend to rely on human dignity...
Latin America imprisoned in liberation theology
Old-style leftist politics is making a eback in Latin America. In Brazil, an avowed socialist and anti-capitalist has taken power in a landslide vote. Luiz Lula da Silva’s first day as president ended with a dinner with Cuba’s Fidel Castro. Also joining him was Venezuela president Hugo Chavez, who is pursuing a leftist agenda and promising a full crackdown on “terrorists” and “traitors” who oppose him. In Ecuador, new president Lucio Gutierrez, a retired army colonel, holds similar political...
The Good of Affluence
“We are going to see a revival in this country, and it's going to be led by rich people.” — Michael Novak, cited in Dinesh D' Souza's Virtue of Prosperity The title of my ing book, The Good of Affluence: Seeking God in a Culture of Wealth, might raise an eyebrow or two. Readers who are at all familiar with contemporary Christian scholarship on the subject of economic life under capitalism will immediately catch that my approach is not...
The Cross of Christ for 8 Mile Road
As anyone who lives in the Detroit Metropolitan area knows, the divisions between city and suburbs, which run along race and class lines, are deep and seemingly intractable. These divisions are what make a Catholic high school in Detroit, at one of which I am a teacher,so different from a Catholic high school in the suburbs. Like Rabbit, the protagonist in the recently debuted movie 8 Mile, my students hail from the south monly considered the “wrong” – side...
Living truth for a post-Christian world: The message of Francis Schaeffer and Karol Wojtyla
To my knowledge, the evangelical Protestant Francis Schaeffer (1912-1984) and the evangelical Roman Catholic Karol Wojtyla (1920-) never met. Francis Schaeffer, founder of L’Abri Fellowship in Switzerland, was a Christian intellectual and cultural critic, practical theologian, author, noted speaker, and evangelist, whose ministry in the last half of the twentieth century incited worldwide study and discipleship centers. Karol Wojtyla (1920-) is a philosopher, university professor, theologian, priest, bishop, cardinal, author, noted speaker, evangelist, and, last but not least, the...
Money and morality: The Christian moral tradition and the best monetary regime
The economic difficulties of the past several years in the United States have led more and more people to take an active interest in monetary policy and in the Federal Reserve System. Many possess an inchoate sense that there must be a connection between past monetary policy and our current doldrums. At a time when monetary matters are attracting so much attention, therefore, it may be particularly opportune to consider the moral dimensions of the present monetary regime. As...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2025 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved