2011 at 6:36 pm | by Carolyn Mahaney
Filed under Marriage Series Current Series“Marriage was designed by God most deeply, most importantly, to be a parable or a drama of the way Christ loves his church and the way the church loves and follows Christ.” John Piper
Being a bride means--above all--that we imitate THE bride, the church. We are to respect, follow, love, and submit to our husband as the church does to Christ. "As the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands (Eph. 5.22)." That's a pretty tall order, for sure.
We have to admit, though, that our husbands might have the tougher assignment: they are to imitate Christ who "gave himself up for us" (Eph. 5.25). We have to follow, but they have to die! This series is not about the husbands, though. We want to focus on God's calling for us as wives.
Submission (Eph 5.22) and respect (Eph. 5.33) comprise the primary role of a bride, and that's who the command is addressed to. Submission was not our husbands' idea, and neither are they responsible to enforce it. This command is not divine permission for husbands to assert authoritarian leadership. Nowhere in Scripture does it say, 'Husbands, see to it that your wives submit.' That's our job.
The requirement to submit to our husbands comes straight from God to us as wives. And we are answerable to Him for our obedience. We cannot blame our husbands for our lack of submission. The responsibility is entirely ours!
And notice to whom we are to submit. As married women, we are not called to submit to all men (and neither are single women, for that matter), but rather to our husbands. Conversely, we should not seek leadership from other men, apart from our husbands, no matter how worthy they are of honor or respect. We are to follow our husbands.
But as I said, this isn't always easy. We'll talk about why, next time. Stay tuned.
(adapted from Feminine Appeal)
