# 28 2018 Dev. Eph. 5:21 Submission! Read verses 21-33. The purpose of these devotionals is to draw Gremar and I closer to God and grow spiritually by applying His Word to our daily living. All passages are taken from the NIV.
Eph. 5:21 “21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
Chapter 5 of Ephesians is the way of love and a call to live the light of Christ in our daily living. Verses 1,2 of this Ch. sets the tone for Paul’s exhortation: “Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children 2 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”. We have looked at being the light and now we look at submission. That concept has very negative connotation in today’s world but the way of Jesus sees this concept as the power of the Gospel. Christ, though all powerful, submitted to die in love for us and Jesus tells us that we will be great in His Kingdom if we become the least and serve others. In verse 21, Paul is talking about the Christian life and about the married life of Christians. In both cases it is not about people, but this is about Jesus, about honoring and glorifying Him in all our relationships. It seems that Christ-centeredness is easily forgotten and the result is that our actions in the church and in our marriages are all about us!
Wives submit to your husbands and husbands sacrifice yourselves for your wives; actual headship is much more demanding than submission. Vs 24-25 summarizes the submission concept: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”. Submission does not designate lesser or weaker or stronger and dominating, no, it goes back to Gen.2:18 “God said:’ it is not good for man to be alone I will make a helper suitable for him.” From the beginning there was equality but differing roles obviously. A suitable helper can only mean that men and women complete each other in relationship. Who really would want to live in a world with only one or the other? The difference of the sexes is what makes life worth living and is only enhance with the blessings of children, and as Christians, marriage is sanctified by the the love of God and the salvation of Christ in our lives. Our marital relations are equated with the relationship of Christ and His church, His body. Submission = “love and Faithfulness”! (Prov. 3:3)
Paul tells us, marital relationship as equated with divine relationship to the church (the body of Christ) is a mystery. Marriage is physical and spiritual. Marriage is one of God’s blessings we enjoy but do not fully understand. The bottom line is that marriage in God’s eyes is on the level of the divine, ordained by God and sanctioned by His love, and is the example of His love for us! Praise be to God!
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