Submit to God’s Word and Follow His Example

“Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God...”

 

“Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity because the days are evil. Therefore, do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

 

Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” – Ephesians 5:1-2; 15-28

 

The overall point of the section is about households walking in the way of love, following Christ’s example of his sacrificial submission to God. Paul cautions people to give significance to understanding God’s will. He advises them to be full of the Spirit instead of indulging in debauchery. But what is the means to get filled with the Spirit and perhaps to know God’s will? He recommends “thanking God and speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and spirit-filled songs (17-20).” Essentially, they must rehearse, sing, and repeat God’s words and, thus, remember his mighty acts. If they do so, they will not live like disobedient people, the children of darkness, for the Ephesians are now “light in the Lord.” They must live as “the children of light bearing its fruit: goodness, righteousness and truth” and seek to please the Lord (8-9). They can do all this by meditating upon and submitting to God’s word.

 

Nevertheless, I would focus on the sections 5:22-28. Why did Paul command the woman to respect her husband before commanding the man to love his wife? Some have wrongly interpreted “submit to one another (verse 21)” as a command for mutual submission between husband and wife. In reality, it is about all believers submitting to each other in Christ, and it rightly belongs to the previous passage that ends with verse 21. The point of the next passage (22-28) is that if the church submits to Christ, Christ will cleanse it with his word and make it holy. If the church doesn’t submit, how can Christ make it holy? Similarly, the woman must submit to the godly man and carefully listen to God’s word to be holy.

 

Only a loving husband would share God’s word with his wife. Paul says, “If a husband loves his wife, he must share with her God’s word.” Americans say, “If a husband loves his wife, he must cook, do the dishes, take care of children, wash clothes, keep the house clean, and do all the household chores.” Did the husbands of Biblical times do any of these things? Even then, God considered them as loving husbands. Americans distort God’s word: add and subtract as they wish. They emphasize everything except the primary responsibility God entrusts to man according to this passage. “If you love your wife, faithfully share God’s word with her and prepare her for life in the coming age.”

 

Many women take marriage for granted and file for divorce for trivial reasons such as lack of money or worldly pleasures because they do not submit to God’s word. If they had listened to God’s word that says, “God hates divorce (Mal 2:16),” and “Let not man separate what God has joined together (Matt 19:6)” many divorces would have never happened. It reiterates the significance of God’s word in marriage. Many women make up false reasons like abuse to create the ground for divorce. However, we must acknowledge that some women may feel dissatisfied with their marriages due to hyped expectations and comparisons with wealthy families. In Christianity today, people give more significance to wealth and worldly pleasures than God or his Word. What’s more, many preachers legitimate divorce with their lies.

 

Similarly, I can’t see the Holy Spirit’s work in today’s churches, though He may have been there in Biblical times and definitely in the Bible that we read. Churchgoers rarely reflect God’s character of love and holiness. They fail to produce the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, meekness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control (Gal 5:22). They lie to each other and deceive one another in broad daylight. Where is the Holy Spirit inside them? For instance, many professors and pastors lied to me many times. Their lies were not ordinary but consequential lies that destroyed my life. The Holy Spirit comes to affirm the words Jesus spoke to his disciples. Hence, I think the Holy Spirit is not working in many churches because they do not submit to God’s word. So, let us walk in love following Christ’s example of his sacrificial submission to God and his Word.