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NASB | Ephesians 5:33 Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Ephesians 5:33 However, each man among you [without exception] is to love his wife as his very own self [with behavior worthy of respect and esteem, always seeking the best for her with an attitude of lovingkindness], and the wife [must see to it] that she respects and delights in her husband [that she notices him and prefers him and treats him with loving concern, treasuring him, honoring him, and holding him dear]. [1 Pet 3:2] |
Bible Question (short): Mutually submissive? |
Question (full): Tim, I just asked God for overwhelming grace and peace to you, in the sense that it's meant scripturally, whatever that is. . . He knows. I'm glad you posted this. Would you help me see the part in Ephesians that teaches mutual submission? I've heard this referred to before, but have only found mutual submission instructed among believers in general, as contrasted with intra-marital submission. (The submit to one another stuff seemed to me to speak to entire groups - of the congregational sort.) Certainly a husband ought to submit to the godly wisdom his wife presents just as quickly as he would to that of any other believer, but I wonder if there's a difference in the kind of - or reason for - submission since neither Paul nor Peter wrote anything *specifically* to husbands and wives instructing mutual submission - as far as I know. If I've not read carefully enough, please help me see what I've missed. Also, that *helpmeet/corresponding power* bit is a gem. It's always good to get further insight as to original language and its intent. I wonder if you meant "Biblically, all our relationships should evidence a self-sacrificing love that seeks the best for others rather than ourselves" to sound like edging toward egalitarianism, or if that is your position in full. For that matter, I'm not absolutely sure precisely how egalitarianism would be defined, or how many permutations there might be ( or even whether I spelled it right.) I suppose my question on that is: Is there a God-ordained hierarchy in marriage, and if so, how is it worked out in the kind of obedience to Jesus that simply rocks the world to His glory? I'm on something of a quest for understanding of this issue which is so very important and often volatile. People have strong feelings about it, and understandably so. This issue addresses the relationship with the single most awe inspiring potential and ramifications apart from our relationship with Christ. (And perhaps even eternal potential and ramifications, in the sense of bringing children into the world in God's ordained plan - or His prescribed way of doing things, as well as other things a married coulple can cause or do in obedience to Christ.) And (in a way that looks sort of tragic/comic,) it often starts to look like a power struggle, or an attempt to interpret God's word in a way that means "I'm one-up" or "I don't have to . . " Either way, it's self-assertion rather than Christ-assertion. It looks so stupid to me when I describe it, that I feel like mocking it. But I know I'm as prone to self-assertion as anyone else. Have you ever been in an ostensibly Christian home and heard the husband scream an order at his wife to "submit" and call har a bad name? This is the kind of ridiculousness I want to learn how not only to avoid, but perhaps even help resolve. I want to understand scriptural principles and analogies that can be applied to real-life marital situations. |