Love and Submission [Part 5]

Love and Submission...part 5
And that's the context; that is the grammatical context in which Paul now says to wives, "Wives, submit to your husband as to the Lord." (Eph. 5:22). So where does it all start? It all starts with husbands and wives being filled with the Spirit. And how can you tell that they're filled with the Spirit? By their speaking, by their singing, by their thanksgiving, and by their submitting one to the other. In that context, where you've got a husband and a wife filled with the Spirit, and you can tell it by their speaking and their singing and their thanksgiving, and their submitting, in that context wives are submitting to their husbands. Now we've moved a long way from simply saying, "Wives, submit!" But if you take a text out of its context you're left with a 'con.'


The third aspect of this context we need to recognize is what I would call the spiritual context. That starts in 5:1, which says: “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children." That is a command; it is a principle for all believers. Are you a dearly loved child of God? The answer should be: "Yes!" Than this is what dearly loved children of God do! They seek to imitate God – to become more like Him.


How do they that? They do it by living a life of love. But how do they live a life of love? They do it just as Christ loved us – He gave himself up as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. This is the overarching rule of a Christian. Christians are dearly loved of God, and they bask in the love of God. Because they bask in the love of God, they want to imitate Him; they want to live more like his Son, Jesus, who lived a life of love and of submitting gladly to the will of God.


So what is it you expect to see in your average Christian? You'd expect to see two things: A loving attitude and a submissive spirit. Why? Because that was Jesus, and we wish to emulate Him.


You say, “How in the world can you live in this world and in this situation, and in my marriage in particular, with a loving attitude and a submissive spirit?” The answer is: You can do it in the fullness of the Spirit. So do you have a context here? You don't start with "Wives, submit to your husband;" you start with "As dearly loved children, be imitators of God."


What that means is that you become more like Christ. What was Christ like? He was loving! How did he demonstrate His love? By submitting to the will of God, and sacrificially giving Himself on the cross. Then emulate His example! You say, "I can't!" Yes, you can in the fullness of the Spirit. If you're living in the fullness of the Spirit, this is what will be showing: your speaking, your singing, your thanksgiving, and your submitting. Submitting to who? One another – that's what Christians do.