A Word to Wives

Bible Text: Colossians 3:18 | Preacher: Alan Conner | Series: 2008, Colossians

Intro

 

THE DUTY OF GODLY WIVES

 

Rules of Engagement –

 

 

Submission a dirty word?

 

 

 

The meaning and extent of submission.

 

1) The meaning of “Submit” is to place under or be under the                                                                              authority of another,

 

2) The extent of submission is found in Eph. 5:24 “in everything”.

 

3) But what if my husband is disobedient, or an unbeliever, do I                                                                          have to submit then? 1 Pet. 3:1-2.

 

 The challenge of submission.

 

 

Encouragement to submission.

 

1) Submission not just limited to women.  We all must learn submission in different ways.  We all must be subject to our government, (Rom. 13:1), church members are to be subject to their leaders (Heb. 13:17), children to their parents, servants to their masters (Tit. 2:9), the spirit of prophets are subject to prophets (1 Cor. 14:32), and we are all to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ (Eph. 5:21), and all of us are subject to Christ. 

God has established order in His world and these principles of subordination are just as much of this order as is the law of gravity.

 

2) This is not a cultural command.

 

1 Tim. 2:11-14

 

1 Cor. 11:3, 8-9

 

Gen. 2:18-25

 

 

3) It does not mean the wife is inferior.

                                                 Gal. 3:28

 

1 Pet. 3:7

 

 

4) Submission by the wife models the church’s submission to Christ (Eph. 5:22-24).

 

 

5)) Submission is one of the greatest ways to imitate Christ.

 

Lk. 2:51

 

Jn. 6:38

 

Christ does not ask the wife to do what He Himself does not do.

 

 

 

6) Submission “as is fitting in the Lord.”

 

“Fitting” = what is right or proper in the Lord.

 

 

Implies that submission does not apply if it results in sin.

 

C. Sproul says in The Intimate Marriage, p. 39, “A wife must disobey her husband when he commands her to do something God forbids or forbids her from doing something God commands.”

 

 

Eph. 5:22 says you are to submit “as to the Lord”.   As such, your submission to your husband is a measure of the degree of your submission to Christ.

               

 

 

 

Conclusion