Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction:

Tell the story of being asked to preach this topic as a single man.

Remember that the author of this passage was in fact a single man, inspired by the Holy Spirit to teach us what biblical marriage looks like.

What is Biblical Submission?

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The relationship of pastor/elder and lay person.

The pastor/elder holds authority over the congregation to lovingly lead them towards Christ, feed them God’s Word, protect them from heresies, and build them up to maturity.

This is done through submitting themselves to the needs of the congregation.

The congregation is submissive towards the pastor/elder’s authority while also exercising the authority of communicating their needs.

Submit yourselves.

God has bound us so strongly to each other, that no man ought to endeavour to avoid subjection; and where love reigns, mutual services will be rendered.

I do not except even kings and governors, whose very authority is held for the service of the community.

It is highly proper that all should be exhorted to be subject to each other in their turn.

The Biblical Role of a Wife

What is Biblical Submission?

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Before we can really begin to look at these three verses discussing the role of a biblical wife, we must first understand what biblical submission truly is.

We see in the verse right before our passage saying that submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ is biblical submission.

It is not something only certain groups are called to, but every person is called to submit to one another in some capacity at every point in life.

Our first and holiest authority is to the Triune God.

It is from this respect that all other submission comes forth.

But let’s be clear about what submission is not; it is not mindlessly following someone without discerning what it is they are leading us to.

Think of the relationship of pastor/elder and lay person.

The pastor/elder holds authority over the congregation to lovingly lead them towards Christ, feed them God’s Word, protect them from heresies, and build them up to maturity.

This is done through submitting themselves to the needs of the congregation.

The congregation is submissive towards the pastor/elder’s authority while also exercising the authority of communicating their needs.

Submit yourselves.

God has bound us so strongly to each other, that no man ought to endeavour to avoid subjection; and where love reigns, mutual services will be rendered.

I do not except even kings and governors, whose very authority is held for the service of the community.

It is highly proper that all should be exhorted to be subject to each other in their turn.

- John Calvin

22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.

23 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.

24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Now that we know what biblical submission is, we can begin to understand what Paul is commanding wives to do.

The word “submit” as we saw in the previous verse does not allude a blind and ignorant following of tyrannical leadership, but rather a humble following of the authority placed above us by God.

For the relationship that is marriage, which is symbolic of the relationship that Christ has with His church, there is a mutual respect, yet the authority is in the head.

The head of the marriage between a man and woman is in the husband.

This again, is not a dictatorship or tyrannical lordship of power over the weaker or submissive party, which in this case is the wife.

The husband and wife are mutually obligated to one another to build each other up towards Christ, but the authority is laid upon the husband.

This is for God’s glory and our good.

What is Biblical Submission?

21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The relationship of pastor/elder and lay person.

The pastor/elder holds authority over the congregation to lovingly lead them towards Christ, feed them God’s Word, protect them from heresies, and build them up to maturity.

This is done through submitting themselves to the needs of the congregation.

The congregation is submissive towards the pastor/elder’s authority while also exercising the authority of communicating their needs.

The wife’s submission to her husband is also obedience to Christ.

The wife cannot be obedient to Christ if she is not submissive to her husband.

However, there is a disclaimer I must give.

If the husband is leading the wife away from the will of God which is revealed to us in the Scriptures, then she not only ought to disobey her husband’s leading, but in fact must disobey.

We see this in as Peter and the other apostles had just been beaten for proclaiming Jesus as Lord and Jesus being raised from the dead, and Jesus as Savior, they said, “We must obey God rather than men.”

These were the same apostles who were obeying and being submissive to the authorities placed above them, yet when they were told to do what God forbids and were forbidden to do what God commands, they had to disobey the authorities of man to continue obeying God Himself.

So the level of submission that the wife has to her husband is different to the level that the wife is submissive to the Lord Jesus because her husband might ask her to do something that God forbids, or he might forbid something that God commands.

With that said, God has made headship within the relationship of marriage very clear.

The husband is the head of the wife, and thus the wife is to submit to the husband’s leadership.

This does not mean the wife is inferior or lower to the husband because both are made in the image of God as says.

Then also says,

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Submit yourselves.

God has bound us so strongly to each other, that no man ought to endeavour to avoid subjection; and where love reigns, mutual services will be rendered.

I do not except even kings and governors, whose very authority is held for the service of the community.

It is highly proper that all should be exhorted to be subject to each other in their turn.

- John Calvin

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version.

(2016).

(Ga 3:28).

Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.

This shows us that man and woman, husband and wife, are both equal under Christ.

For the woman also being made in God’s image was made as man’s helper.

says,

18 Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

19 Now out of the ground the LORD God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them.

And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name.

20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field.

But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

21 So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh.

22 And the rib that the LORD God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man.

This gives another way to understand how a wife ought to view her submission to her husband.

It is as a helper, equal under God, yet complementary in her role to the man.

It is like a queen to a king rather than a slave to a king for the relationship is different.

A wife is a helper.

So based upon this key word of helper, we see that a wife is to help her husband in his labor, whether that be in actual help in what he is doing or that it be in encouraging and supporting him in his decisions as long as they be godly decisions.

But notice that it is not slave or servant.

There is a major difference in the treatment of the two, mainly that a wife is a good gift from God that is to treasured, cared for, and protected.

This is our first point, that husband and wife are both equal under God, yet are given separate and complementary roles to support one another and give the most glory to God.

Now let’s look at two other places that God commands a wife to submit to her husband.

It is in these other two passages that we can see with greater light, the role of a biblical wife in her submission and the complementary design that God has for the husband and wife:

18 Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.

Notice the phrase “as is fitting in the Lord.”

This goes back to the degree of submission that a wife has to Lord which is greater than the degree of submission that the wife has to her husband.

Likewise, wives, be subject to your own husbands, so that even if some do not obey the word, they may be won without a word by the conduct of their wives, 2 when they see your respectful and pure conduct.

3 Do not let your adorning be external—the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry, or the clothing you wear— 4 but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God’s sight is very precious.

5 For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, by submitting to their own husbands, 6 as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.

And you are her children, if you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening.

In this passage, we see that it is through respectful and pure conduct done out of a gentle and quiet spirit by a woman who is submitting themselves to their own husband that others are won to Christ.

The wife is holy by hoping in God and adorning herself in submission to her husband with a gentle and quiet spirit, being respectful and pure in her ways.

The wife is first hoping in God, then obeying God by submitting herself to her husband, and is supporting and encouraging her husband with respectfulness based out of her love for Christ.

So let’s talk about what a biblical wife is, and what a biblical is not through some illustrations.

First starting with what a biblical wife is not: