Ephesians 5.21a-Believers Must Voluntarily Subordinate Themselves to One Another (Doctrinal Bible Church in Huntsville, Alabama)
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday September 17, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:21a-Believers Must Voluntarily Subordinate Themselves to One Another
Lesson # 371
Ephesians 5:15 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of paying careful attention to the manner in which each and every one of you make it your habit of conducting your lives. Each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to not make it your habit of conducting your lives in an unwise manner. On the contrary, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives in a wise manner 16 by continuing to make it your habit of taking full advantage of your opportunity for your own benefit because these days are characterized by evil. 17 For this reason, each and every one of must continue to make it your habit of not conducting your lives as foolish individuals. On the contrary, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives as wise individuals by comprehending for the purpose of personal application what constitutes the Lord’s will (for the manner in which each one of you as a corporate unit are to continue making it your habit of conducting your life). 18 Consequently, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of not permitting yourselves to be drunk by means of the excessive intake of wine because this is non-sensical behavior. On the contrary, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of permitting yourselves to be influenced by means of the Spirit’s teaching 19 with the result that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of communicating with one another by means of psalms, hymns as well as spiritual songs so that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of singing and specifically continuing to make it your habit of making music with your hearts for the benefit of the Lord. 20 This also results in each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of always expressing thanks to the one and only God, namely the Father because of each and every circumstance on the basis of the merits of the name possessed by the Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit. 21 Furthermore, this results in each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit voluntarily subordinating yourselves to one another based upon reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love of Christ on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:21 is composed of the following:
(1) Participial result clause: Hypotassomenoi allēlois (Ὑποτασσόμενοι ἀλλήλοις), “Furthermore, this results in each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit voluntarily subordinating yourselves to one another” (Lecturer’s translation)
(2) prepositional phrase: en phobō Christou (ἐν φόβῳ Χριστοῦ), “based upon reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love of Christ on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit.” (Lecturer’s translation)
So therefore, Ephesians 5:21 is composed of a result clause, which asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of this letter, continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another.
This result clause is modified by a prepositional phrase, which presents the reason for this result clause.
It asserts that this voluntary subordination of oneself to one’s fellow believer is based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
So therefore, the participial result clause in Ephesians 5:21 asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of this letter, continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
Like the participles in Ephesians 5:19-20, the participle here in Ephesians 5:21 presents another result of the recipients of this letter obeying Paul’s Spirit apostolic command in Ephesians 5:18, which required that they continue to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by means of Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching in this letter.
Therefore, it expresses the idea that the recipients of this letter must continue to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by means of Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching in this letter “with the result that” they continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
The verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι), which pertains to voluntarily subordinating oneself to another.
The referent of the masculine plural form of this verb is the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
The second person plural form of this verb refers to the members of this community not only as a corporate unit but also as individuals.
The latter of which is indicated by the fact that Paul is using the distributive sense of the second person plural, which emphasizes no exceptions expressing Paul’s concern for the Christian community not only as a corporate unit but also as individuals.
Websters Collegiate Dictionary lists the following meanings of the verb “subordinate” 1: placed in or occupying a lower class, rank, or position: inferior 〈a subordinate officer〉2: submissive to or controlled by authority 3: of, relating to, or constituting a clause that functions as a noun, adjective, or adverb.
The contents of Ephesians 5:19-20 indicates that the verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι) here in Ephesians 5:21 pertains to voluntarily subordinating oneself to another in the sense of occupying a lower class, rank or position than each other.
Thus, the verb expresses the idea of the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia continuing to voluntarily subordinate themselves to one another in the sense of placing themselves in a lower class, rank or position than each other for the purpose of ministering or serving each other.
This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did during His First Advent by becoming a human being in order to serve all of sinful humanity by living a life a perfect obedience under the law for all of sinful humanity as well as suffering the wrath of God as substitute for them in order that they would not have suffer the wrath of God for all of eternity in the lake of fire.
Mark 10:45 “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (ESV)
Philippians 2:5 Everyone continue thinking this (according to humility) within yourselves, which was also in (the mind of) Christ Jesus, 6 who although existing from eternity past in the essence of God, He never regarded existing equally in essence with God an exploitable asset. 7 On the contrary, He denied Himself of the independent function of His deity by having assumed the essence of a slave when He was born in the likeness of men. 8 In fact, although He was discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by having entered into obedience to the point of spiritual death even death on a Cross. 9 For this very reason in fact God the Father has promoted Him to the highest-ranking position and has awarded to Him the rank, which is superior to every rank 10 in order that in the sphere of this rank possessed by Jesus every person must bow, celestials and terrestrials and sub-terrestrials. 11 Also, every person must publicly acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord for the glory of God the Father. (Lecturer’s translation)
The members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia were to voluntarily subordinate themselves to one another by self-sacrificially serving one another.
They were to do this by exercising their spiritual gifts, which function when they obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to self-sacrificially love another as He self-sacrificially loved all of them at the cross when they were His enemies (cf. Rom. 5:6-8)
The verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι) is grammatically connected to the contents of Ephesians 5:18-20 and presents another result of obeying the command in Ephesians 5:18.
It refers to believers subordinating themselves to one another as a result of permitting themselves to be influenced by Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.
The referent of the reciprocal pronoun allēlōn (ἀλλήλων) pertains to the reciprocal nature of this subordination of the believers.
The referent of this word is of course the recipients of this epistle who were members of the Gentile Christian community throughout the Roman province of Asia.
Therefore, pronoun expression the mutual exchange and give and take that is to take place between these believers.
In other words, the interaction between the members of the Christian community is to be one of reciprocation.
This word functions as a dative direct object, which indicates that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia as the direct object of this verb receive the action of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another by ministering to each other.
Paul puts the word in the dative rather than accusative case because he wants to emphasize the personal volitional responsibility that each of member of the Christian community must voluntarily subordinate themselves to each other by ministering to each other as a result of permitting themselves to be influenced by the Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.
The Christian’s love for God and his fellow believer and fellow man also involves “reciprocation.”
Reciprocation is an essential aspect of divine-love since it encompasses both the vertical aspect (directed towards God) and horizontal aspect (directed towards other believers and unbelievers) of divine-love.
