I was going to do a wedding at one of the beautiful, stained glass Christian Churches in a major Midwest city. It is a beautiful church that is very popular for weddings. Many of the cities “whose who” attend there. It is a church to be seen at.
The Senior Pastor requested a copy of my talk to the couple. As I always do I give a challenge to the husband and the wife from God’s Word. I commonly use this text from Ephesians:
“giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” (Eph 5:20-28)
I don’t really push submission because it is such an offensive word to women. I normally stress “finding your fit” which is one mamby pamby way of translating “submission”. I also stress the wife’s influence over her husband, something most women love to hear. That is because they love tobe ’empowered’. I also talk about the husbands responsibility to love his wife, even to the point of dying to what he wants, just like Jesus.
Most people like to hear what I have to say, but the preacher of the ‘Christian’ church didn’t. He called me up and said that they did not talk about submission at his church. I asked him about the passage in Ephesians, and he acknowledged that it existed. However, he said they choose to ignore it in their church.
Well I was shocked.
I thought to myself “his church must be run by women”. Then I got to thinking about Martin Luther, and how he tore the book of James out of his Bible, because it talked about works. Then I thought, isn’t that what I do when I water down a word so the message is not offensive?
I read that Huckabee talked about wives submitting to their husbands. Too bad, he’ll start to fade real fast. We’ll be stuck with Romney before long. He changes all of his stances to whichever way the wind is blowing. He would never get stuck in the mud.
So what is it about submission that is so offensive to people. The main thing is it acknowledges that God is stuck on authority. HIS authority. And we better submit to it or there will be judgment. That’s why Jeremiah got stuck in the mud. The princes did not want any other authority but their own. As long as America and our society refuses to submit to God’s authority, God’s design for our families and society, we will continue to erode in moral character and personal conviction. Marriage will become more of a joke, and the family as early 20th century America experienced will become only a dream. There will be no more “moral backbone” to America.
Loving the Word with the MudPreacher 
kudos to you and many blessings for preaching the Word and not sugar coating anything. If I had correctly learned to submit to my husband in the marriage, I might have been spared the two year separation from him, the loss of what was to be our adopted baby, and the turmoil I put my daughter’s through.
Thank the Lord that He does give grace and also chastises His children.
Proud to say we’re back on track 🙂
Blogging…. so easy even a cave man can do it.!!!
Hey, thanks for the link.
So I’d have to disagree with your final conclusion here. From my, admittedly biased, “recovering Catholic” perspective, it’s the attempt to interpret God’s will and the imposition of God’s authority on others that has made a mockery of monotheistic religions and everything they try to stick their noses in. On a spiritual level, when I try and really dig deep and get in touch with “the creator,” it feels a lot less authoritarian and a lot more about love – unconditional love toward all creations. Now you’re going to say that you can have both, an authority figure who loves unconditionally. And I’m going to retort that, 1) humans don’t have the capacity to understand that kind of individual – hence the concept is totally lost on us and 2) (related to the first point) people are endlessly mucking up and distorting the intentions of authority figures that haven’t been super specific about what they intend – which, since God knows us so well, he would know wouldn’t work to our benefit, and 3) the idea of hierarchy of beings breaks down just after you go from God to us – who comes next? Monkeys? Dolphins? Should other species submit to our authority? Just because we assume that we were created in his image, does that automatically mean that we’re next on the rung? Couldn’t God have an equal affection for all living beings? When it comes to earth, who’s the authority of whom? And that brings us right back to Wives submitting to the servant leadership of their husbands. Bad, outdated idea. Period.
The bible is full of them.
I appreciate Todd’s comments. Welcome them actually. We each are given the choice of worshiping a god of our own choosing. I simply choose to worship THE GOD as described in the Scriptures. It takes an ability to believe in the things which are unseen. Not everyone can see Him. Even though His design and handiwork are all around, many choose to simply ignore the Creator. I Samuel 2:10 says “The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces: From heaven He will thunder against them. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King, and exalt the horn of His anointed.
I believe God is getting ready for His Son to reign as King. As the events start to unfold, those who oppose His authority will become more and more evident. Their opposition will only make that day more climactic. As Psalms 2:1-6 declare, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, “Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.” He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision. Then he will speak to them in his wrath, and terrify them in his fury, saying, “As for me, I have set my King on Zion, my holy hill.” (Psa 2:1-6)
I believe in the God of this Word. I also believe we should “Kiss the Son lest He be angry, and you perish in the way.” (Psalm 2:12)