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Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Today, my goal is to rescue the truth about submission from the radical feminist who would deny it, but also from the rabid fundamentalist who would pervert it into what God never intended. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter five, as we look at what I've called the most unpopular verse in the Bible. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. In Ephesians 5 22, the Apostle Paul instructs wives to submit to their husbands.
Many people see this statement as outdated and oppressive, while others twist the words to justify domineering behavior. But what does this verse really mean? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains how biblical submission fits into God's design for marriage. Now, here's our Bible teaching, teacher to introduce today's message.
Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Too many Christians attempt to get through their day without first spending a few minutes reflecting on God's promises. It's our lifeline, but we often miss out. Well, Pathway magazine is a periodical From Pathway to Victory that equips you for daily battle. With short inspirational thoughts that I've written for you, Pathway magazine is designed to give you a taste of God's promises.
So that you're ready to face the challenges of your day. Let me get you started with the first three issues. They are my gift to you when you visit ptv.org and click on the tab that says Pathway magazine. There's another resource I'm eager to send to you today. It's my brand new book and the one that coincides with our current teaching series in Ephesians. My new book is titled Holy Living in an Unholy World. Paul was a pioneer of the Christian faith who managed to remain strong in a hostile culture.
His adversaries were cynical, hostile and persuasive. By following Paul's example and by accessing the riches of God's word, you and I can remain strong today as well. Please take advantage of our time limited offer to receive my new book, Holy Living in an Unholy World.
I'll send you a copy when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. Now it's time to begin our study and I'm going to warn you that few Bible verses have sparked more controversy than the one we're looking at today. Ephesians 5 verse 22 instructs wives to submit to their husbands. Does this verse have any relevance to our times?
I'll answer this question in my message about the most unpopular verse in the Bible. I'll never forget one of the first weddings I ever did. We'd gotten to the part of the vows and I said, Now do you Sarah take the man who holds you by the right hand to be your lawful and wedded husband? Do you promise to submit to him and love him all the days of your life until death shall part you? She said, I do. And then it was Bill's turn. I said, Bill, do you take the woman whom you hold by the right hand to be your lawful and wedded wife? Do you promise to love and to cherish her until death alone shall part you?
He said, I do. They kissed. I pronounced them husband and wife and off we went to the reception. I was downing a piece of coconut cake when this little old lady shuffled up to me. She was smiling, but when she got to me, her smile turned to a frown. She said, Pastor, I just want you to know that if you had asked me the same question you asked my granddaughter about obeying her husband, I would have said H-E-L-L no. And she didn't spell out the word either.
You know, her reaction is not unusual. I'm surprised at the number of Christians who absolutely will jettison their belief in the inspiration of the scripture when it comes to the passage we're going to look at today about wives being submissive to their husbands. Really, the apostle Paul changes status from God's chosen apostle to male chauvinist pig.
A lot of people think that's why he wrote these words. Well, today we're going to look at what the Bible really says about this whole area of submission and what it doesn't say. And actually, people have twisted and perverted this verse into something God never intended. Pastor Kent Hughes writes, the fact that evil, disordered men have perverted God's word is no reason to throw it out.
Today, my goal is to rescue the truth about submission from the radical feminist who would deny it, but also from the rabid fundamentalist who would pervert it into what God never intended. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 5 as we look at what I've called the most unpopular verse in the Bible. Ephesians 5. Now, we have to set this verse in context. Remember, Paul is in this section talking about our walk with God.
He's talking about our wealth from God in Ephesians 1-3, all the spiritual gifts that we have and benefits. Now he's talking about how we're to use our high calling, how it affects our everyday walk. And he's talked about in relationship to other Christians in the church, we're to walk in unity. And then we've looked at the section where he says when it comes to our personal conduct, we're to walk in purity. And now he's going to talk about how our walk with God ought to impact our family life. And he says when it comes to the family, we need to walk in humility. And that brings us to verse 21, the beginning of this section. Remember, there were no chapter divisions in the original text.
This is a new section. And there is a general command that he begins with. Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.
Now, that is the overall theme of this whole section on the home. The controlling command is be subject to one another's or submit yourself to one another in the fear of Christ. The Bible teaches mutual submission. It's not just wives who submit. Husbands submit, parents submit, employers.
It was slave and masters in those days, slaves and masters who lived in the house. But everybody is to submit to one another. Now, Paul is going to take that general command and apply it to wives, to husbands, to children, to parents, to employees and their employers. By the way, this word submit is in the middle voice indicating that it denotes cooperation. We're not forced to do this.
We do this voluntarily. And the picture of that is Jesus Christ. Jesus said himself, I did not come to be served, but to serve and give my life as a ransom for many.
That is submission. So this verse, this section, verse 21, starts with a call for mutual submission. But he begins with wives. Look again at verse 22. Wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. Now, people wonder, why does he start with the women? Why start addressing women? Is he just going to pick on them first? Is that just the default position for the apostle Paul?
Well, no. The reason he starts with women may be because there were more women in the Ephesian church than men. There were more women converts to Christianity than men.
But I think there's a deeper reason. I think Paul is actually showing respect to women by addressing them. You know, I'm sure you've heard this canard a thousand times, that the Bible denigrates women. The Bible subjugates women. It turns them into second-class citizens in the kingdom of God.
Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, if you know anything about the culture in which this book was written, the Bible actually elevated the status of women. I mean, just think how revolutionary the Bible is when it comes to women. John chapter 4, Jesus spoke not to the man at the well, but the woman at the well. That was unheard of, that a rabbi respected like Jesus would talk to a woman, much less talk theology with her.
But he did, about the water of eternal life. Or 1 Peter 3, 7, in which Peter said, husbands, treat your wives as fellow heirs of the grace of God. Peter says women are equal to men as being recipients of the grace of God.
Or Galatians 3, 28, in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free man, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Yes, women are equal to God in status as men. But remember, equality doesn't mean sameness. Just because men and women are equal doesn't mean they're the same.
I mean, basic anatomy teaches you that, right? There's a difference between men and women. And what Paul is saying is, as you submit to one another, wives, your responsibility is to place yourself under the leadership of your husband. Now, it's significant Paul does not use the word obey. Did you know there's no verse in the Bible that says women, wives are to obey their husbands? Now, as we'll see in a few weeks, the Bible says children are to obey their parents, Paul said.
Employees are to obey their employers. But women are not children. And women are not domestic slaves.
They are fellow heirs to the grace of God. So Paul is saying for women, it's not obey your husbands, it is to submit yourself. You're equal to your husband? You may be superior to your husband and intellect and other areas and so forth, but the wife demonstrates her submission by following the leadership of her husband. That means the husband is not to go around as a little dictator, a little Hitler, barking out orders, do this, do this, do this. The Bible says you have to obey me. No, the Bible doesn't say you have to obey. That's not the role of women. We've looked at the meaning of submission to place under rank.
Now, let's look at the reason for submission. Why does Paul say women are to submit to their husbands? Look at verse 23. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is also the head of the church, he himself being the savior of the body. Now, this verse is a real problem for the egalitarians who say that there's no hierarchy in marriage.
There's no leader in the marriage. How do you get around this verse that says that the husband is the head just as Christ is the head? Well, the way the egalitarians dismiss this verse is they say, well, it's all in how you define head. Head doesn't mean leader. It means the source. He's the source of encouragement and love and so forth and so forth. And that sounds real nice until you do a word study of this Greek word kephale that's translated head. Dr. Wayne Grudem is a professor at Trinity Seminary, a graduate at Harvard. He decided to do a word study of this Greek word kephale, and he found how it was used outside the Bible.
It's used in literature 2,236 times outside the Bible, kephale, and in every instance it means head, not source. The Bible says the husband is the leader. He's the leader of the family. Now, that doesn't mean he's the dictator. And there's a difference between leadership and dictatorship. Remember, in any organization, the military, the home, a business, a church, there has to be a clear chain of authority. Somebody has to have the final say. But the truth is, even though that person is the husband, it doesn't mean he's to be a dictator. Now, you may wonder, how did this whole idea of headship come into being, leadership? And people answer, well, that's a result of Adam and Eve's sin.
This hierarchy of leadership is a result of the fall. No, that's not what the Bible teaches. If you go back to Genesis chapter 2, you find the description of God's creation in six days, the animals, the trees, the birds, and God said it is good, and then he created man.
That was the climax. It is very good, but it immediately said not good. It is not good that man is alone. I will make a helper suitable for him, Genesis 2, 18. The woman is described as being man's helper, one to help him achieve his God-given purpose in life. Now, I know that sounds like it's a derogatory view of women, that women are nothing more than the helper to their husbands, but that Hebrew word translated helper is used 21 times in the Hebrew Old Testament.
Fifteen of those 21 times, it refers to God himself. God is man's helper. The Lord is my helper.
That's the word that is used here. Man is deficient by himself. He's weak by himself.
He needs a helper. He needs God, but God's provision to help him is the woman. The woman is the God figure in a husband's life. She is the one who makes up for the weak parts, the deficiencies. You do know men have deficiencies, right, women? I'm sure you've discovered that.
You are the one who shores up those deficiencies. It's not a low view of women. It's a high view of women that equates women to God. No, it wasn't the result of the fall that distorted the relationships into this headship and followship, not at all.
But the fall did have an impact on the relationship with husbands and wives. Let me show you what that result is in Genesis 3.16. After Adam and Eve had the forbidden fruit and God condemned them, he pronounced judgments on them.
Notice what he said in Genesis 3.16. To the woman, he said, as a result of sin, I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain, you will bring forth children.
I bet all the moms assembled today would say amen to that. You've experienced that. But then he goes on to say, yet, your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you. As a result of the fall, your desire will be for your husband. Now, is that talking about sexual desire?
No. Sexual desire is not the result of the fall. Remember, before the fall, in the pre-fig leave days, Adam and Eve were getting along pretty well, weren't they? They had sexual desire.
That was before the fall. No, this word desire doesn't mean sexual desire. It's an Arabic word, comes from an Arabic word, which means to usurp. Your desire will be to usurp your husband's position, his leadership in the family.
That is a natural result of the fall. And he, your husband, will rule over you. Well, Pastor, you just said that was God's plan for men to lead their families.
This word rule doesn't mean lead. It means to dominate. The result of sin entering in the world is that women would be grasping for the husband's leadership role in the family, and the husband, instead of sacrificially loving his wife, would try to dominate her, to try to make sure his needs were met and not hers. That's the result of the fall. And fortunately, that's our default position, husbands and wives. That's what we do naturally. But through Christ, you don't have to be subjected to that.
Your marriage can be redeemed, and it can be restored to the pattern God has where the woman follows the leadership of her husband, and her husband loves her as Christ loves the church. Now, we've talked about the meaning of submission, the reason for submission. Let's look, finally, at the boundaries of submission. This is not an unconditional command. Lives, submit yourself to your husbands.
There are boundaries to that command. First of all, submission is voluntary. Ephesians 5, 24 says, But as the church is subject to Christ, so wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. When I say submission is voluntary, I don't mean, ladies, you get to choose if you're married, whether or not you're going to submit and follow your husband. What I mean is you get to choose whether or not you want to be in that relationship where you submit to your husband. If the idea of submitting, following some man, is repulsive to you, don't marry. You don't have to. You don't have to at all. But if you do marry somebody, make sure it's somebody whose leadership you're willing to follow.
Where do I get that? Look, 1 Corinthians 11, 3. But I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.
That's the key. God the Father and Jesus the Son are equal in authority. God the Father is not superior to the Son. They are equal in authority.
But even though they were two equals, the Son willingly gave up His rights as God and submitted Himself to the Father's authority and came to earth to die for our sins. That's a picture, Paul said, of marriage. In marriage, you have two equals.
The man and the woman are completely equal. But the woman, like Jesus, voluntarily chooses, even though she may be smarter and more gifted than her husband, she voluntarily follows the leadership of her husband. That's what I mean by submission is voluntary. The point is, you have to be willing to follow the leadership of your husband if you're going to have a successful marriage. Submission is voluntary, but it's also limited. Submission is limited in two ways.
It's limited in sphere. Listen, there is no verse in the Bible anywhere that says all women are to submit to all men. There are only two spheres in which submission applies, in the family and in the church. There is nothing in the Bible that prohibits a woman from being a CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
There is nothing that prohibits a woman from being President of the United States. That is not against the Bible. Submission applies in the home and in the church. People say, well, what about 1 Timothy 2.12? I do not allow a woman to exercise authority over a man. Paul's talking about in the church, not in the world.
It's limited in its sphere and in scope. By that, I mean, although Paul says in verse 24, she's to submit in everything, we have to understand what he means by everything. He means everything that does not violate God's word. Because in Acts 5 29, there's a balancing verse that says we must obey God rather than man. Wives, if your husbands ask you to do something that's illegal or immoral, you do not have to submit.
You should not submit. You obey God rather than man. If he comes to you and says, you know, I'm uncomfortable with you taking the children to church.
I'd like you to spend Sundays with me. I've actually heard some well-meaning Bible teachers completely distort what's being taught about submission and say you need to follow your husband if he doesn't want you to go to church. No. The Bible says do not forsake the assembling together of yourselves. If your husband makes you the victim of physical abuse and tells you you have to take it to be a submissive wife. No, God hates violence.
He absolutely hates it of any kind. No, that's right. That's worth applauding. We need to follow God and not man. So in everything is limited. Paul says in submission, the first person to submit is the wife, but she's not the only one. Next time we're going to look at what the apostle Paul says is the way a man submits in marriage to the needs of his wife. Interestingly, Paul gives twice as much space to the man's responsibilities as to the women's responsibilities in marriage. Next time, we're going to discover how to keep order in the house.
I hope you'll plan to join us. Yes, I do hope you'll meet me again next time for a practical message for wives and husbands. The Book of Ephesians feels like it was written for our times, even though Paul wrote his letter in the first century.
The principles apply to life in twenty twenty four. With this in mind, I wrote my brand new book called Holy Living in an Unholy World. And time is running out to request your copy. So we urge you to get in touch with Pathway to Victory today. Many Christians are feeling defeated these days. It's easy to assume that evil is gaining territory and godliness is losing ground. In my new book, I'll help you align your perspective with God's view. I'll equip you with tools for surviving and even thriving in these days of spiritual darkness. A copy of my new book, Holy Living in an Unholy World, is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Well, as you've likely gathered from today's message, I refuse to skip over the tough parts of scripture or dodge difficult topics.
My approach is straightforward. I present what the Bible says and let God handle the rest. And I'm thankful to find that our audience, friends like you, wouldn't have it any other way. So for as long as God grants us this tremendous media platform, you can count on Pathway to Victory to remain your go to source for bold and accurate Bible teaching. Thank you for your continued support. Our radio, television, and digital streaming ministry wouldn't be possible without dedicated friends like you standing with us.
David. Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. When you contact Pathway to Victory and give a generous gift, we'll send you Holy Living in an Unholy World. That's the brand new book by Dr. Robert Jeffress based on our study from Ephesians. Call us today toll free, 866-999-2965 or give online at ptv.org.
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Well, we've talked about wives, but what is God's mandate for husbands, children, parents, and even employers and employees? I'm David J. Mullins, inviting you back next time for more practical wisdom on relationships. Find out when you join us Friday for Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. Picture yourself relaxing aboard a luxury cruise ship as you sail the Mediterranean Sea on the Pathway to Victory Journeys of Paul Mediterranean Cruise. This 11-day journey will take you to unforgettable destinations in Italy, Turkey, and Greece.
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