Love and Submission [Part 4]

Love and Submission...part 4



Next notice the grammatical context in which Paul is writing. Verse 22 says, "Wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord." Some women absolutely hate that verse! Well, I've got some good news for you! That verse was originally written in Greek, not in English. When it was written in Greek, the word 'submit' was not there! You say, "Why didn't you tell me this 35 years ago?” Well, the reason, I didn't tell you that 35 years ago, is I didn't know.


The word submit is not there in the Greek. You say, "How in the world did it get in there then in the English? Well, the translators know that you cannot have a sentence without a verb. So they said, "We need a verb!" If you look in the previous verse, verse 21, it says, "Submit to one another out of reverence to Christ, wives, to your husbands as to the Lord." In the Greek it makes perfect sense. You don't need to “submit” in the second sentence because it borrows the verb from the previous sentence. You say, "Well, what's all the fuss about then? No fuss, it's just explaining something to you: you cannot separate verse 22 from verse 21.


So now you get the grammatical context, which gives a very, very different light on it. You don't start with "Wives submit to your husbands"; you start with “Submitting to each other as unto the Lord,” and in that context Paul says, "Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord." “Submitting” is the accurate translation here; it's what we call a participle.


I just mention that to you quickly because there are three other participles in addition to submitting in verse 21: singing in verse 19; speaking in verse 19; and giving thanks in verse 20. Submitting, Giving Thanks, Singing, and Speaking. The important thing about that is this: these participles are like big clusters of grapes. You've got a cluster called Submitting; and you've got one called Thanking; and you've got one called Speaking; and you've got one called Singing. These clusters of grapes all need a branch to hang on, that's what a participle needs. It needs a verb on which to hang. The verb, on which these participles hang is found in verse 18, where it says: "Don't be drunk with wine, which leads to all kinds of wrong living; rather, be filled with the Spirit." (Eph. 5:18)