[Vision2020] The Potency of Submission

[TIM RIGSBY]

The Potency of Submission
Douglas Wilson

Husbands are commanded to love, and we are taught that the kind of love they 
are to render is the kind that bestows loveliness. But wives are not 
encouraged by this to simply be passive recipients—they are given a command 
as well. They are to be subject to their husbands (Eph. 5: 24), and they are 
to honor and reverence their own husbands (Eph. 5: 33). We find the same 
principle at work—respect bestows respectability. "Wives, submit yourselves 
unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. . . . Therefore as the church is 
subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every 
thing. . . This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the 
church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife 
even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband" (Eph. 
5:22_24, 32_33).

In some sense, the relationship between husband and wife is like the 
relationship between Christ and the Church. Consequently, husbands are 
commanded to model themselves after the pattern of Jesus Christ. In the 
reciprocal way, wives are commanded to model themselves after the Church. 
They are in the first place to submit themselves to their own husbands, as 
to the Lord (v. 22). Just as the Church is subject to Christ, so wives are 
to be this way to their husbands in every thing (v. 24). There is no great 
mystery involved at all if men brow-beat their wives, but Christian marriage 
is a great mystery (v. 32). So husbands are to love, and wives are to 
reverence their own husbands (v. 33). As we shall see, this does not reduce 
women to a state of helplessness, but rather it leads to a true feminine 
authority.
With wives, as with husbands, the Christian pattern of "self-improvement" is 
death and resurrection. What is true of the Lord is true of the Church as 
well. Just as Jesus died for the Church, so everyone in the Church is called 
to take up the cross and follow Him. So wives are equally summoned to 
fulfill this pattern, and to mortify their own desires for autonomy. The 
pattern is not "husbands die, wives coast." Both are summoned to die, so 
that they might be raised to their particular calling.
Wives are to "submit" themselves (hupotasso, v. 22). The word is a Greek 
military term, and means to subject, submit, subordinate oneself to a line 
of authority. The same word is used in v. 24 (cf. 1 Pet. 3:1). In Titus 2:5, 
the same word is rendered as "obedient." In verse 33, wives are told to 
reverence their own husbands (phobeo). In this context, it carries the sense 
of "awe, honor, and respect," and not the idea of being scared or having a 
phobia (the same point should be made in 1 Pet. 3:2).
A few other words from elsewhere in the New Testament help fill out the 
picture. Sarah was subject to her own husband (hupotasso, 1 Pet. 3:5), and 
in the next verse it says that Sarah obeyed her husband (hupakouo, v. 6), 
calling him lord (kurios, v. 6 ). Peter tells wives that they are her 
daughters if they do what is right, and do not give way to fear. The word 
hupakouo comes from the duties of a porter, who was to listen attentively at 
the door for an inquiring knock. In 1 Tim. 2:9 the word aidos urges women to 
a deferential reverence.
This means, along with some other novel ideas, that Christian wives should 
obey their husbands. Wives need to get clear on the actual standard. The 
fact that your husband is to love you sacrificially does not alter the 
content of what this enables you to do. Of course husbands are prohibited 
from bluster, bossing about, selfish grasping, and all the rest of it. But 
the Bible nevertheless requires wives to obey their husbands. This obedience 
is to be cheerful, complete, and reverent, all the way down, and across the 
board. Remember that in our passage St. Paul tells wives to be subject to 
their husbands in every thing. Now I am fully aware of the fact that in our 
current cultural climate this is a perfectly outrageous thing to say and 
teach. It may even be illegal in some states. This is too bad because the 
grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of the Lord endures forever.
You have heard the qualification about this many times—no human authority is 
absolute, and if your husband commands you to break God's law, then you must 
(submissively) decline to do so. But this is almost never where the problem 
is.
What we considered earlier now comes home in a striking fashion. In order to 
do this, a woman must die, and be raised again. In Gen. 4:6-7, Cain is told 
that sin lies in wait for him, and desires to master him, but he must rule 
over it. This is a very unusal combination of words in Hebrew, and the only 
other place it is found is in the previous chapter, where Eve is told that 
her desire will be for her husband, but that he will rule over her (Gen. 
3:16). Part of the fallen order is this desire that women have to run their 
husbands in an ungodly way, in big things and little things. But Jesus came 
to deal with this, and He enables Christian women to partake in His 
suffering and death, and He raises them up again.
The fear is that this teaching will turn women into doormats, fit only to be 
walked over by abusive men. The very opposite is the case. Remember that we 
have learned that love bestows loveliness. If a man sacrifices himself in a 
Christ-like way, laying down his life for his wife, in issues great and 
small, what is her natural response? Is it "Oh, good, now I can get really 
fat"? Not at all—love bestowed bestows loveliness. But the God who made the 
reciprocity of the sexes included this feature in it as well. Respect 
bestows respectability. Honor bestows honor. Reverence bestows dignity.

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Revolution is not a word but an application; it is not war but peace; it 
does not weaken, but strengthens. Revolution does not cause separation; it 
generates togetherness.
-John Africa, Strategic Revolution

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