We just listened to a very popular pastor teach about submission. I respect his teachings and think he is right on in most of his teachings. He was specifically teaching about wives submitting to their husbands, so I was very excited and then VERY disappointed.
He first said that husbands are never supposed to tell their wives that they are to submit since the verse begins with the word "wives." I completely disagree. The verse begins with "wives" to make it clear that this is who the verse is directed towards. If the husband is the head of the wife, he is definitely suppose to tell his wife that she is suppose to submit. {I sure hear of many wives reminding their husbands that they are supposed to love them as Christ loves the church!} No, he can't force her but he definitely can tell her what the Bible clearly commands.
Then he spoke about mutual submission and camped out there. He said we all submit to each other and even Christ submitted to us by dying on the cross. The Bible never states that Jesus was submissive to us. Yes, He died for us, He served His disciples, and He loved us but He never submitted to us. He only submitted to the Father.
You see, he changed the word submissive to mean serve. He said everyone in the family should submit to one another. A true head of the home, submits to his family. No, a true head of the family serves and loves his family but he doesn't submit to his family, just as Christ never submits to the church. A government doesn't submit to its citizens, parents don't submit to their children, employers don't submit to their employees and husbands are NEVER commanded to submit to their wives.
The dictionary defines the submit is "to yield oneself to the power or authority of another." Jesus never yielded His authority to us. Even His crucifixion was because God allowed it. He sets the rules of our conduct and we can either obey Him or not. If we are His children, He will discipline us if we are living in disobedience {Hebrews 13:7,11}.
Most pastors when they teach about submission, don't really teach submission at all. They teach loving, serving, pleasing, and sacrifice but not submission. They are afraid of it. They don't want to teach about headship and authority for fear it may be abused. This pastor defined being a head and authority of the family as submitting to the family. No, a father should love, serve, sacrifice, and please his family but he is never called to submit to his family, just as Christ is never told to submit to us, but to the Father.
It is just completely frustrating to me that godly preachers who study God's Word pervert this word to be politically correct. Yes, headship and authority can be greatly abused, but the majority of godly men will never abuse it and only hold that position with respect {if they even want to be the head of the wife, which so few today even seem to want}.
Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ,
so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
Ephesians 5:24
