Answering the submission question

Nothing like a little political furor to bring a Biblical topic to the forefront. All of a sudden, the Christian S-word (submission) is in the news. What that means for us as women in ministry, or wives of ministers, is that we'd better be ready to answer questions on the touchy subject of marital submission.

5 Walk in wisdom toward those who are outside, redeeming the time. 6 Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt, that you may know how you ought to answer each one. Col 4:5-6  NKJV

Are Christian women expected to be blindly obedient to whatever our husbands tell us to do, like those fictional women (robots) from Stepford?

Does submission make us less valuable, or of less importance to God, than the men we're married to?

Is God a chauvinist? Does God hate women?

Hardly. A brief glance at the ministry of Jesus reveals God's heart and thoughts toward women. Jesus never rejected, or oppressed, the women who came to Him. He repeatedly defied the religious standards toward woman in His actions, demonstrating Paul's later writings to the Galatian church that "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Gal 3:28-29 NKJV

It's not God the Father who oppresses women. It's a demonic spirit of religiosity. Whether that religiosity takes the form of Islam, Hindu, Catholicism, or evangelical Christianity, wherever you find oppression and suppression of the daughters of God you'll find that evil spirit. Jesus NEVER oppressed women.

On the other end of the spectrum, modern media has taken to "dumbing down" husbands and men in general. However you feel about the power of confession, it seems to me that calling my husband an idiot (with whom I am, according to Scripture, ONE FLESH) is contradictory to anything I might desire...

FYI: This is NOT submission...





In the New Testament, ALL Christians are commanded to submit to the Lord, to one another, and to those who are in authority. (Rom 13:1,5; 1 Cor 16:16; Eph 5:21; Heb 13:17; Jam 4:7; 1 Pet 2:13, 18)
Wives are specifically directed to submit to their husbands in Paul's epistles to the churches at Ephesus and Colossae.

The Greek word for submission is the word hupotasso, which literally means "to come under assignment" or "under commission." We submit to the governing authorities, to our husbands, and to each other, as an assignment or commission, from God. It's not blind obedience to a human being.

In my opinion, the best explanation of hupotasso is to come under, or alongside, the mission of another. Helpers. Partners. God has given our husbands an assignment, and in respect to that assignment, we are called along as helpers. (You may very well have your OWN assignment, but if you're married, you are also called to aid your husband in fulfilling his divine commission.) What's your hubby's assignment? First, to raise up a godly household, to bring up children in the knowledge of the Lord. Second, whatever calling is placed on your husband, whether pastor or evangelist or missionary or ???

Does that mean (as so many fear) that we become "yes-women" to our husbands? No. It means, as partners and helpers, we prayerfully consider the course our husband/team leader is taking, and act accordingly. As team members, we understand the vision we hope to attain, and we take into consideration every action in light of that vision. And, as dedicated team members, when the direction or plan or focus seems "off," we are willing to raise our hands and ask a question.

One minister put it this way: "submission is a respectful response." We are commanded to give a respectful response to our husbands. Submission is not a blanket agreement with everything he says or does, but a respectful response. A husband who is committed to the Lord and committed to his wife as a gift from God, will readily hear her questions and receive her insight, taking those things with him to the Lord in seeking direction. A foolish man (like Abigail's husband, Nabal) will ignore his wife's advice and run his own way. Another kind of foolish man listens to his wife INSTEAD of listening to the Lord (Adam, Abraham).

Submission isn't a curse or a punishment. It's a tremendous responsibility to pray and hear from heaven, and to be willing to bring what we "hear" with our spiritual ears to our husbands,with whom we are partnered for the fulfillment of a divine calling.

Is the private in the Army less valuable than the general? No... his or her life is just as important, even though they had different assignments.

Is a woman submitted to her husband somehow "less" than a single woman? Nope, it just means she has an additional assignment on her plate beyond the one God has given her individually. 

Niki Turner is feeling her way through a new season of living. She turned 40 last year, became a grandma in April 2011, and at the end of June, she and her husband turned over the pastorate of the church they planted 13 years ago and are "recovering from the effects of heat" while God prepares them for their next assignment.