Devotion 6: Submission
Pastor Ryan Story
When I hear the word “submit” or “submission” my mind drifts to the wrestling world. In wrestling opponents are faced against one another until they are capable of forcing the other into submission, or a state of giving up. In this scenario neither opponent desires to be the one that has to submit, the goal is to conquer or win!
Ephesians 5:22-24 writes, “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”
I believe the idea of submitting is one that can be very difficult for us to understand. As with the wrestling example, submission is not something that humans often strive for. Especially if one has the drive to become a strong, independent person, the “anything you can do, I can do better” type of person, the idea of submitting, let alone the actual act of submitting, becomes something to be avoided. People often spend their time searching for reasons why they should not have to submit, or loopholes to what this verse is saying instead of pressing into what Paul really meant when he wrote this. We fail to ask what this biblical command for wives to submit to their husband might actually mean.
Unlike the wrestling submission, where someone has to be forced to submit before the match ends, this biblical form of submission is a willful submission. Throughout Ephesians 5 Paul has written about imitating Christ. Ephesians 5:1-2 says, “Be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loves us and gave himself up for us.” Just as Jesus willingly gave up his life to save us, we willingly submit out of imitation of Christ. Just as a wife willingly enters into union with her husband, we now willingly submit to the order God has given us with the husband as the head of the marriage. We joyfully and willfully obey this command not to make life easier for the husband, but to obey what God has said and to live in obedience to Him.
If you have found yourself viewing submission to your husband, or even submission to God, as more of a wrestling match, one where you feel determined to win; ask God to reveal areas of your heart and mind that need to be submitted to Him. Trust in the order and plan that God has designed.