I think the word “submit” may be quite similar. It’s a word some people really dislike, so instead of studying it and coming to a firm conclusion on its meaning, they choose not to believe in it at all.
I’m convinced we must have some doctrine of submission (it is, after all, right there in the Bible) but don’t think I’m alone in cringing a little bit when I hear the term “submit,” especially in the context of marriage. When I hear “wives, submit to your own husbands,” something happens in my mind or heart that I don’t really like. I feel this immediate little bit of shame or rebellion or something. Submission feels old-fashioned. It feels like the kind of thing I may want to explain away like, “I know it looks like it says ‘submit’ but it doesn’t really mean ‘submit’.” The problem is that it really does say “submit” and, as far as I can tell, really does mean it. There isn’t one Bible translation that disagrees. So we just need to tackle it head-on.
But what’s happening? Why do I feel that little bit of rebellion or shame when I hear the word “submit?” I think it’s proof that we as Christians are constantly battling worldliness. Worldliness is allowing our minds and hearts to be shaped by messages that come from outside the Bible. Remember Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your minds.” Our minds are like Playdough and someone or something is always shaping them. Our lifelong battle is to ensure we are not being conformed to the thought-patterns of the world but are instead being transformed by the revelation of God. And in this area I think many Christians, myself included, have allowed worldliness to encroach just a little.
The worldly thinking that constantly creeps into our minds is that our value and our dignity as people comes from our function or role, from what we do relative to other people. The Bible says something different. Your value and your dignity do not come from what you do but from who you are. And who are you? You are the one creature in all the world made in God’s image! You do not gain value or dignity from your function, or your contribution, or your abilities. Your value and your dignity are intrinsic to you and equal to anyone else’s because you are made in the image of God.
Why is that important? Because a world that assigns value to function rebels against the idea of submission. It concludes that for a wife to submit to her husband means that she must have less value than her husband. This is false, but it’s so often there in our minds and hearts.
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Deebs do not believe wives are called to be submissive to their husbands. It doesn't fit modern feminist narrative.
Very good piece by Challies, whom I sometimes think a bit over the top on comp issues.
ReplyDeleteI well remember Dee saying in one of the interminable debates on submission at TWW "I respect my husband but I do not submit to him". I admire her candour I suppose, but on a site largely dedicated to calling out the sins of men - sometimes rightly - you could hardly be surprised that no-one will take much notice of her if she herself is in a place of disobedience. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot!
The usual debate over submission is whether it is one direction wife to husband or mutual. I think the latter is untenable, but in theory no-one is against submission. In practice these fine discerners of the faults of others have no intention of obeying apostolic teaching in this area of their own lives.
In like manner the pack will turn on anyone who tries to point out their own sins of speech or attitude, and can be visciously nasty in doing so.
The sad thing about this is not only does this damage those who do it and those who read it, but it lessens the credibility of genuine attempts they make to expose the corruption at the heart of some sections of modern evangelicalism.
Ken B