Wives submitting to their husbands was one topic co-preached on today at my church:
- Last time I checked the podcast wasn't up yep, but if you're interested click here and look for 7/15/2012 sermon.
- They did a really good job which lead to...
- thinking, which lead to...
- internet searches, which lead to...
- mapping it out on my laptop
Some quick facts about my lack of credentials:
- I'm not an expert on Greek,
- This is just a short look into one afternoon of internet searching, cross referencing and article reading.
- This is what I found
- For the shortest version scroll down to (Then I Dug Deeper) because that has the crux of this blog
In the NIV Bible translation submit is
used 29 times, five of those was for wives to submit their husbands listed below.
| Wives
submit to Husbands |
|
| Ephesians 5:22 | Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. |
| Ephesians 5:24 | Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. |
| Colossians 3:18 | submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. |
| 1 Peter 3:1 | Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives |
| 1 Peter 3:5 | For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to adorn themselves. They submitted themselves to their own husbands, |
Now if you go with the dictionary
definition of submit at dictionary.com based on the Random House Dictionary--
5. to yield oneself to the power or authority of another: to
submit to a conqueror.
It
seems like an open and shut case. Wives yield yourself to the
authority of your husband.
But when I dug deeper:
Using the interlinear Bible at www.biblestudytools.com I found all of the husband wife references use the Greek word Hupotasso one of many greek words meaning submit. I also looked up each verse using www.scripture4all.org, just to make sure.
Hupotasso
according to the Bible Study Tools Lexicon can mean:
'“A
Greek military term meaning "to arrange [troop divisions] in a
military fashion under the command of a leader". In non-military
use,it was "a voluntary attitude of giving in, cooperating,
assuming responsibility, and carrying a burden."'
Now this may be
a stretch but I'm going to assume marriage is not being referred to as a military
arrangement. Even if this is what Paul was getting at, John Temple Bristow's What Paul Really Said About Woman
talks about it being a command that told the troops to work together.
I looked at the other possible meanings:
- a voluntary attitude of wives giving in
- I think there are times where we do need to compromise what we want. I don't think it should be every time, for this breeds hidden anger, which later comes out in contempt and eventually all respect is lost and neither party is happy. When constantly giving in breeds such negative end results I just can't see it being a God thing.
- wives cooperate with your husband
- I like this one the best. Cooperation is working together. It doesn't reference hierarchy. So instead of the verse reading submit to your husband, it's cooperate with him.
- wives volunteering to take responsibility.
- There are times when it's my fault and I need to take responsibility for what I did.
- Of course he should do this too.
These make sense to me. For once I can wrap my head around “Wives
submit to your husbands” I suddenly know how to practice it (in theory).
- Even if you don't agree that this interpretation of the Greek word was meant there, I challenge you to take it out into the field
- It's has a very clear application
- Cooperate (work together)
- Volunteer to take responsibility for what is yours
- Things I noticed about marriages that are working: compromise, shared responsibility, and cooperation.
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