“Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.” (Ephesians 5:22-25)
The pastor then looked at us, smiled, and said he wasn’t going to touch that subject “with a 20-foot pole.”
The congregation chuckled. I did not. I thought how sad it was that this pastor, called by God to shepherd His flock, sidestepped an important opportunity to remind us of God’s immutable expectations in marriage.
Christian, please listen. God’s word is His voice to us. It is His heart to us. When we dance around truth, dilute truth, or try to explain away truth, God’s word still and forever holds final authority over all life and relationships.
I know Christian couples – and you probably also know of some – couples married a short time, or a long time who, like this pastor, choose to ignore the so-called ‘hard truths’ of Scripture.
In our culture, Feminism – which is a code word among many feminists for “Do what is right in your own eyes” – Feminism has for two generations encouraged – even from pulpits – God’s children to choose their own way over God’s.
But make no mistake about this fundamental truth: “The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.” (Isaiah 40:8)
And so, back to Ephesians 5 and the relationship within the family unit. It should not surprise anyone even marginally fluent with Scripture, God Himself follows the same pattern of submission within the Godhead.
Christians understand God is One, but three Persons and three Natures. We call God by His more complete revelation as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each Person within the Trinity is co-equal and co-eternal with each other.
And yet, although each is co-equal with each other, there exists within the Godhead a divine order of submission.
For example, Jesus is submissive to the Father. He tells us so much in John 4:34: “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work.”
And again, in John 8:28-29: “I do nothing on My own initiative, but I speak these things as the Father taught Me . . . . for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”
And yet again, in Matthew 26:39 “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”
We also read that the Holy Spirit is submissive to the Father and the Son. Here is John 14:26 “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.”
And again, in John 15:26 “When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me.”
Christian, listen, please. If such orderly submission is eternally present in the Godhead – what argument can there be for disorder and confusion about the roles of husband, wife, and children in the family unit? It is nothing short of unspeakable arrogance to think that we have a better plan for the family than God has within the Godhead.
God calls you and me to obey Jesus Christ when it is convenient and when it is not convenient. We must follow Him when we like what He tells us to do and when we do not like what He tells us to do. He demands us to obey His word, even when His word contradicts the culture.
Oh, God, please help all of us to never put a 20-foot pole between us and truth. Rather, please cause us to embrace the ‘hard truths’ of Scripture and teach others to do the same.
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