Submitting

Submitting

 

Dear Champions,

 

The short excerpt is by Andy Stanley, and the scripture is in the excerpt.

 

Mutual submission is the most powerful relational dynamic that there is.  It means, “I’m here for you, and you’re here for me.  I want to defer to you your happiness and to what you need, and you want to defer to me and my happiness and to what I need.  I want to submit my authority, power, resources and time to the happiness for my partner, and she wants to do the same for me.”  Both people are submitting to each other. 

 

Jesus modeled this, and his disciples wrote about this after he left.  Ephesians 5: 21 says Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  This is actually his set up for his talk on how Christian marriage works.  Then he gets into specifics which get people into trouble when taken out of context.  He gives wives a specific, and he gives husbands a specific. 

 

Ephesians 5:22 says Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  Husbands love this verse.  The problem is that it was written to wives.  So whenever a man brings this verse up, I tell him that it was not written to him.  He goes on and speaks to husbands.  Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.  That’s a really high standard because Jesus died for the church.  Wives love this verse, but it’s not written to them. 

 

When husbands and wives go to back to the previous verse where they are to submit to each other, when they understand that the goal isn’t to power up, this is the most powerful relationship dynamic.  Mutual submission is to take my time, resources, and talent and to submit to my partner, and she to me.

 

Champions, have a great week!-David Vining