Ephesians 5:22-24 – Berris Patience – 2026 02 01

22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. (NASB 1995)

Transcript:

(Disclaimer: AI generated transcript. Accuracy may vary)

In Ephesians chapter five and we’ll be looking at just verses 22 to 24 today. So I will be, I will be focusing on your wives and the next week husbands will be, however, there will be something here for every single believer. And we’re gonna be highlighting or I will be highlighting the idea of headship, submission and headship, especially in the context in the world. How these terms have been misguided, misinterpreted, misrepresented because of how the world looks at it. So for the next couple of weeks under the overarching heading instructions for the household, which will take us into chapter six, we will be focusing on that on strokes zooms in so is narrowing now from the entire body of believers to specific groups that, especially the household that he will be addressing in these passages. So the first subheading that we’ll be looking at is the Christian marriage and this is part one of two of that is we’ll be focusing on the wives today and then next week as I said, we’ll be looking at the husbands. So verses 22 to 24, Paul writes, wives subject yourselves to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is, is the head of the church. He himself the savior of the body, but as the church is subject to Christ, so also your wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. God, I pray that you’ll speak through me boldly for the truth to your people. And again Lord may from these three verses, uh, which you uh, which you, you would have a scheme from the Lord may be worth a gain for conviction and authority. May we grow and mature and get a better understanding of especially these terms that have been thrown around and be misinterpreted by the world to make you live. So use me Lord for your glory. For your honor, Christ sake. Amen. Amen. These verses or these 12 verses verses 22 to 33, excuse me, contain the longest discussion in the New Testaments on the entirety of the New Testament. The longest discussion of the roles and relationships, especially with God of the husbands and the wives in the context of marriage. Obviously this is a very renowned passage among believers for developing a Christian Christian view of marriage. This section along with chapter six verses one to nine are tied with the command in verse 15 of chapter five. And that command says, watch carefully how you walk. So everything that Paul has said since verse 15 is tied to this very particular verse. It’s watching how you walk. Once again, Paul’s concern, our concern of Paul is that every aspect of the lives of the believers, every single aspect that I have been reiterating that quite a lot, every aspect of our lives, every relationship that we have we are in must be centered around Jesus Christ and the word of God. Because every part of the life of a believer must reflect our relationship with God. And that is what Paul is emphasizing and has been emphasizing throughout this chapter, living these relationships, whether it’s the marriage, whether it’s parents and children, whether it’s slave and masters as we’ll see we live these relationship in a way that God intends, we live out these relationship in the matter of which God commands another way of knowing and living according to the word of God. This is how we do that. In addition, in the same way, in the same way ministering to each other like we saw in verses 19 and 20 is to be spirit filled. These roles, these relationships that we’re gonna be looking at, whether it’s the husband and the wife, the master, the slave, the parents and the children, they ought to also be spirit filled. And the only way we’re gonna execute these roles effectively and properly in the manner which God intends and expects and is commanding us here to do is if we’re spirit filled, we’re living spiritual life. So as you would’ve known by now, the spirit field life doesn’t just apply to when we come to church and we’re gathering and we’re worshiping together corporately. It is every aspect of our lives. And again, going back to the verb that Paul uses continually be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. So to fulfill each relational role that Paul is going to be presenting here to verse nine of chapter six, it implies self denial. It implies that self denial will play an integral part, an integral role in the life of these individuals, whether they’re a husband, whether your wife, child, slave, master. It will play an integral role. So this means humility that we looked at in verse two of chapter four will be essential, will be absolutely essential in these roles. And what this means is that the role of the Holy Spirit can be hindered or quenched as we looked at or grieved. When we fail to fulfill our goals in these relationships, we are quenching the whole history. We are grieving the whole history when we’re not living the life that God has taught to live in these relationship in the marriage as parents, as masters and slaves. So this depicts an attitude of selflessness and or selfishness. Rather, when we are fulfilling these roles, we’re not living in a importance of God’s will. It depicts an attitude of selfishness as opposed to an attitude of selflessness. The passage or this passage about the husband and the wife relationship of course is an extension of what Paul or what we see from Paul again in Colossians chapter three verses 18 and 19. What I find most fascinating about this section, the husband wife section, is how Paul establishes the Christ church relationship as the pattern for how husbands and wife wife relates to each other. So when we are living out our marriage in the way God intends to reflecting the relationship that Jesus Christ has with his church or we’re gonna get into that there’s a headship aspect of Jesus Christ with his church And then there’s a submission aspect of Jesus to the Father. And again we will look at those as we make our way through these instructions are these instructions are two instructions rather to two members who first and foremost represent God in the household. That’s what these instructions are about. There are to two individuals, again in the context of the marriage, our two individuals in believers who are representing God, representing Jesus Christ within the confines of their home. And it’s gonna be the same with the master and the slave and it’s gonna be the same with the parent and the child or parent children relationship. So we’re representing God in the household. Paul’s emphasis is on Christology even with this, this um, description and this command. And we see this at the end of the chapter in verse 32. Of course this of course places a monumental task on the husbands and the wife to reflect not only Christ in the marriage but also that their marriage reflects a relationship that is Christ and his church. So the comparison of the household code to the passage on spiritual warfare that will be eventually looking at chapter 16 to 20 likely suggests. So the fact that Paul is talking about the household here and how we ought to conduct ourselves within the confines of the household relationships, Paul is implying and insinuating that this is one of the spheres in which the devil are Satan attacks. And that is a whole in general and this makes perfect sense. In fact, I would submit to you today that this is the most attacked sphere by the devil is a home. Because here’s the logic, if you break down the home, which is the logic of the devil, which is the logic of the enemy, if you break down the home, you break down the church. If the whole life isn’t solid, if the whole life for the believer, obviously the believer ’cause if he already has them. But if the whole life isn’t firm on the word of God and we get drawn away by all the things that we’re seeing out there in the world gives word that is gonna seep into is gonna come into the church. So he is trying to break down the whole all that we see, all the garbage, all the nonsense that we’re seeing out there in the world with the whole gender nonsense and the sexuality along with the attack on the nuclear family and the marriage as God has designed it is a testament to the fact that the enemy is attacking the home, is attacking the home, is attacking the church via the home. This is why the home needs to constantly be filled with the Holy Spirit of God. These relationships, these individuals in the relationships need to constantly be filled with the Holy Spirit of God and allowing God’s enabling power through the Holy Spirit so that we can resist the attacks of the enemy. That is why it’s so vital in a culture where celebrity marriages are constantly before our eyes in a world in which where the media uses these celebrity marriages as a template for what a marriage should look like in a world in which where in which unity and love you love until you find someone else. Because that is celebrity and that is marriage according to the world you love until you find someone else. We cannot look at that culture as our template for what God the marriages are like. Paul was directing the church in Ephesus here from looking at marriage as he was practicing the B brick of Roman world in the B brick of Roman culture and drawing their attention to marriage as is derived between the relationship between Christ and his church derive from how God ordained marriage from the beginning of time. We’re going to look at that as well. So the idea of submission and headship as we get into these verses, Paul in verse 22 said, why subject yourselves to your own husbands as to the Lord? And if you notice in your translation, doesn’t matter what transition you have, subject is in italics, which means it’s inferred or it’s imply imp inferred or supplied in this verse. It wasn’t there in the original language and it’s inferred from the previous verse where Paul was talking about subject or submit yourselves to one another. It’s saying the same thing, it just, Paul didn’t see it in the original when he wrote to write it the second time, but it’s implied so it should, it reads originally wives to your own husbands as to the Lord and then the subject is inferred or implied. Submission means that here it is and this is where the world and society has twisted this so much that is has infiltrated the church and we’re afraid to use this term. I grew up in churches where you can’t use this term ’cause of how society sees this term and uses this term. So mission means voluntarily and you’re going to hear me emphasize these things that as words similar to this as we make our way through this, it’s voluntarily placing oneself under the authority and leadership of another voluntarily. This isn’t submission where I conquer you and I have my foot on your neck so to speak. This is you willingly submitting yourself to the leadership in this context, the hospital, as we make our way through, we’re gonna see that in the context of us as the church willingly submitting to Jesus Christ as our head. The Bible teaches about submission of wives to husband and this begins in Genesis which declares that God made man in his own image and he made them first male and then he made female. The equality of men and women of course is a necessary foundation from which to begin the discussion of headship and submission in the family. Adam’s headship and authority in the marriage were was established before the fall ’cause that’s another argument that you would hear that submission came in as a result of the fall. Hence submission is a falling, nature is a falling thing. This was established before the fall. What happened after the fall is the, so the headship used in a ungodly manner which is domineering that um, Moses talks about in Genesis don’t be a dominant husband. And then you have on the context with the wives the usurping of the authority. Again that is seen in Genesis words that the, the wife would be for his husband is the, her desire would be for the husband. It’s not something positive there. It’s talking about the, the natural state of the woman would be to usurp the authority as the natural state of the husband would be to put their foot on the neck if you will so to speak. But this was established before the fall and that is vital for us to understand that remember I was first created and Paul will reference this in terms that same context in one Corinthians 11 eight and one Timothy two 13 second the command to leave and leave is addressed to the man, thus giving him, giving the husband the responsibility to establish the home. Genesis 2 24, again a text that is repeated multiple times in the New Testament. In fact Paul will reference it later on in this third passage thorough the woman is designated as the helper for the man. Another term that has been esly, misinterpreted and misrepresented over in the world. Again we see this in Genesis 2 18, 1 Corinthians 11 19 9 fourth Adams authority is seen in that he is the one who named Eve and fifth Matt was designated Adam, which was the term used to describe the entire human race. It wasn’t eve, we don’t say eve kind, we say mankind or human kind. That’s derived from Adam in the New Testament, especially first Corinthians 11, three to 10. These verses teaches that the headship of the man in the marriage and the basis of this instruction is based on from the account, the creation account. It goes back to the creation account. So when we get to Ephesians chapter five referred to the 24, these verses instruct wives to submit to the authority of their husband as they would to Jesus Christ. And we often miss that, especially in the misrepresentation of this term and the concept and the idea we are submitting as you would to Jesus Christ in the same way the husband is not alone just like Jesus Christ loves. While husbands should love their wives, Peter also exhort the wives to submit to her husband and cautions that the husband’s authority should be society with understanding it should be exercise with honor towards his wife and that’s gonna make submission a lot easier for the wife when we play our roles, right? So when everything is working intricately as God designed it, there won’t be any problems, there won’t be any issues, there won’t be any struggles or at least any major ones. So the structure when balanced with Genesis chapter one verses 26 and 27 demonstrate that both men and women are essentially equal. We know that we’re equally God’s side. However we’re not equal in terms of roles and responsibilities at our function in society, our function in the church, our function in the family, we are not equal. And again, these are things that society doesn’t like to hear. They would like to hear that we’re equal at all fronts. It’s not our roles, our responsibilities are different. God designed it that way. God expects us as believers to execute it in that matter with that mindset that we have different functions and different roles in society. It is a reason why I’m here preaching every Sunday because that’s one of my roles, that’s one of my responsibilities. We have roles and distinct responsibilities. Now some have suggested that according to chapter five verse 21 submission and you may have heard this submission in the family is a two way idea that is along with the wife submitting to the husband, the husband also submitted to the wife through his loving, sacrificial leadership. However, in Ephesians 5 21, it is more accurate to speak of the sphere of authority and submission to one another, not in the confines of marriage. The relationship between Christ our Lord, savior Jesus Christ between him and his church is a paradigm for submission and authority in the marriage. Paul tells us this, submit yourselves as you would to the Lord the church. And here is the word again willingly. We willingly submit ourself to Jesus Christ. The church willingly submits herself to Jesus Christ as her designated head. Many passages I’ve referenced this, while Christ as the head is clearly the authority over his church ’cause it is his church, Christ loves his church. Christ loved the church, Christ gave himself for her and presents her spotless. Paul talks about this later on in Ephesians chapter 5 25 to 27. So Christ and his church is a template, is our reason, is an example for the the wives in submission because where you’re doing it as you do to Jesus Christ, then there is an aspect of the submission with the trinity within the Godhead. One aspect of submission is seen in the relationship between the Father and the Son. And you can even add the Holy Spirit in that co-equal. We know they’re fully equal God the Father, God the Son God the Holy Spirit. But yet the Son here is again freely, freely submits himself to the Father. And we’ve seen this so many times, especially as we read through the gospels. That’s why he went to the cross because he fully submitted willfully to to God the Father throughout his entire earthly ministry he did this and we see this, that he will continue to submit himself to God the Father, even in eternal kingdom that is to come. And when the disciples asked him about the restoration of Israel in Acts chapter one, he said, that is God the father’s business. That is him submitting again to the the the will of God within the God. There is equality in essence for difference in roles and function providing another paradigm for headship and submission within the family. And we have submission even in the sphere of relationships outside of the context and the confines of marriage. There are several other relationships in the Bible that are instructed, that are structured rather based on authority and submission. All human beings according to Deutero in chapter six, Isaiah Fortified one, John chapter two, all human beings are required to submit themselves to God. The Bible teaches as submission to God appointed leaders as in the case with Abraham, with Moses and others in the Old Testament for the New Testament era with this pastors, there’s elders. Out of the leaders deacons within the body of Jesus Christ. Human beings are also required to submit themselves to governing authorities such as kings and government in the context in which we live. Romans chapter 13, children are required to submit and obey their parents. So even within the context and the confines of life itself, there is that idea and that aspect of submission. So here is a call for us, for us as believers, the call here is for Christian wives to follow the leadership of her husband in the marriage. This is a call for willingly, for willingly complying to the headship of the husband in the same way the church willingly submits to the headship of Jesus Christ. I want you to get that. It’s a willingness. It is a willingness, it’s a free thing, it is freedom. And we’re gonna get into that at the end where we’re drive this home from an application standpoint, it’s freedom, it’s willingness. So the basic idea is being that is being presented here and is repeated again in verse 24 is that the wives should not seek to assert themselves or you serve the authority. So we don’t follow that simple nature because that’s where the sin nature drives us. And like I said, next week we’re gonna look at the husbands ’cause the sin nature in the husband is to be domineering in the same way the sin nature in the pastor and the elder is to be domineering. These things are spoken against. So it is not to or assert themselves over the authority of a man in the home, not to be controlling or dominating, but instead they ought to have acknowledge that God given role assigned to the husband and respect the leadership of the husband. And in that the husband endeavors to provide for the family that God has entrusted him with. So the application begins when we resist culture that is absolutely vital, not just in the culture in which we live, but here as Paul wrote in the third, first, second, third century, then the application is to resist the culture, resist the travesty that are in the culture with resist the ideologies that the culture pushes at us. Both in the context of authoritarianism and the misuse of that and the modern impulse to dismiss the verse in its entirety because that is archaic, that is old. We don’t apply this to the church. There’s no such thing as submission. We should just be co-equal and everybody should run and rule and reign the home on an equal plane. That’s not God’s design for the church, for the home. And that is why the church is broken down. ’cause these ideologies within the confine of marriage, within the confine of the parent children relationship, they come into the church and the devil is smiling because that’s what he wants. Confusion and chaos among the body. And if he can destroy the home, he’s unwell on his way to doing that. Read a book long time ago and this individual, a pastor actually was on a plane, true story. And he saw a gentleman over in the aisle next to him and the gentleman was, his head was down, he was praying and the pastor waited to see ’cause he didn’t want to interrupt him obviously. So when this gentleman was finished he said, oh I noticed you were praying, what were you praying for or about? And he said, I’m a devil worshiper. And I was praying to the devil that he destroys the home because if he destroys the home then the church will be destroyed. That’s what he was praying for. And I guarantee you that methodology has not changed because they see the importance and the significance of the home. It is no surprise, it’s no surprise that the things that we’re seeing is a direct attack from the home. It is no surprise that the government wants to take the authority of the parents away from the parents so that the government makes the call or the teachers or the the school or society makes that it is no surprise. It is a plan of the enemy and we have to stand our ground. Paul grounds this posture of submission from the wife as to the Lord. This is not about the husband’s superiority but about order ordering or orienting all relationships around Jesus Christ. It is surrounding Jesus Christ as will be the case for any relationship that we’re going to be looking at. It hinges on being filled with the Holy Spirit of God she might say. And one of the verse even says that in everything submit, does that mean if my husband is leading me to sing, I should submit none of these verses, none of these texts that speaks of submission. Whether it’s here in Ephesians, whether it’s Peter Titus Colossians, none of these texts preach or expects submission of the wife or the wifes or obedience of the wives in the context of leading the sin and ungodliness. He doesn’t expect that. So please bear that in mind so that everything there going Paul says everything is contextual within the confines of the will of God. That is where the authority of Christ overrules the authority of the person in this context of husband government context. This will a spirit led husband and here it is. So this is for us husbands a spirit led husband will not, I repeat, will not lead his wife to submit to sin. A spirit led wife will not submit to sin in this case. And in the same way the spirit led master or parents will not lead their servants or their children to obey sin. This is not someone who is spirit led. This is where you wives can take a stand as Peter says in Acts chapter five verse 29, we will obey God rather than men. In any context of submission we will obey. There might be consequences, just bear that in mind. But we will obey God rather than men. Peter was, they were they faced the consequence of saying we’re not gonna stop preaching Jesus Christ. The Hebrew men, they faced the consequence of saying re going down to your image, worship is due to God and God alone. And worshiping the false idol is one of the, is breaking the ka commandments of God. So we must obey God rather than him. So that answers that question in the context of obedient disobedience to the word of God if that’s where the husband is leading. But one the wives who live with husbands that aren’t saved and there would of course be such in the church I’m sure that Paul was addressing Ephesus. However the pause appeal to such a why is to order themselves under the leadership of their husband again within the context and confine of obedience not leading to sing one Peter chapter three verses one and two few verses. I was earlier. In the same way you wifes be subject to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the word, they may be won over without a word by your behavior, by your conduct as they observe your pure and respectful behavior. Submission is never a mandate to endure abuse, it’s never a mandate to endure abuse. It’s never a mandate to endure information or elimination of personhood. Biblical submission is freely given, it’s never demanded, it’s freely given. Paul states that the why ought to do so to submit and he tells them how to submit. They do so as to the Lord to verse 23. And he tells ’em why they ought to submit because the husband is the head of the wife in the same way that Christ is the head of the church. And this phrase, the head establishes an iCal concept or structure within the marriage relationship. So that idea of no, we’re all just on the same playing field, gets thrown out the window when we read this word and read the text. ’cause there is a hierarchy, there is a role, there’s a responsibility. Again, it’s not dominating because that’s how society depicts submission and headship because they see as domineering, inferior to the sub to to the superior or superior to the inferior. The concept of head implies leadership. It implies responsibility rather than domination. In the cultural context in the first century, the husband was typically the provider of the family, the husband and still is the protector of the family roles that align with the biblical understanding of headship, provider protector. This mirrors of course the order that we see in First Corinthians chapter 11 verse three, where Paul states that the head of every man is Christ, the head of the wife is her husband and the head of Christ is God. So there is that hierarchy that we see a divine order for a divine purpose. So the husband, as Christ leads, he leads and as God leads Christ, he leads us. That’s the that that’s the picture that Paul is trying to paint for us. In one Corinthians 11, the relationship between husband and wife is portrayed as a reflection of Christ. Again relationship with his church. Christ exercises headship through profound love through self-giving and humble service demonstrated throughout his entire earthly ministry and is still demonstrating that right now we can go boldly before the throne because of what Jesus Christ did. He’s interceding on our behalf right now. Even as I’m speaking to you, he sent his Holy Spirit to us as a down payment, as a reassurance, as a guarantee that we are sealed with sealed until the day of redemption. So we’ve seen this sacrificial self-giving love of Jesus Christ humble service demonstrated throughout his entire earthly ministry. And it culminated of course in his death. And this of course becomes a model for us husbands whose leadership is to mirror Christ, who Christ is and the characteristic of Jesus Christ. So in turn, the church, which is Jesus’ own body, responds how in loving us, in willing submission because of what Jesus Christ did for us. I hope you’re getting the picture here and right there you see husband, there’s a sense in which submission will be easier for the wife. If we are living godly husband lives, that will make the difference. Because in the same way that Jesus Christ was so loving, sacrificial, loving, horrible self-giving is the same thing that is expected of us. And this of course internalize the church. We willingly submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ and to the headship of Jesus Christ in the same way we trust him, trust that he is leading us for his good, for his glory. So pause metaphor. Metaphor here emphasizes responsibility on both parts of husband and the wife. It implies that it emphasizing life giving leadership, not a hierarchical control. In his teaching, Paul’s teaching, Paul’s draw a parallel between the husband, role within the marriage and Jesus’s relationship to his church. And this is intended to communicate that true headship is marked by selfish care. It is marked by sacrificial love. It is marked by the nurturing of those who are under authority rather than exerting dominance and enforcing rigid authority. So our, the leadership of the husband is meant to foster growth. It should foster growth is meant to foster the wellbeing and the flourishing of his wife reflecting again Jesus’s love and purposeful leadership over his church. And of course this approach stands in sharp contrast through the world’s model of leadership, which is prioritized by power and authority. I’m going to show you who is in control. That’s the world system. That’s how the world shows their ship for this cause for humility. This calls for a man that seeks the good of others. That a person, a wife that seeks the good of others. This is grounded in mutual respect and devotion for one another. Such leadership is responsible. It involves protecting, it involves providing, it involves guiding with integrity and compassion. It also involves being life giving, encouraging to the wife’s spiritual and emotional and personal development. Pause. Metaphors ultimately rejected or rejects rather any notion of a perceived rulership or ruling. It promotes an environment in which both partners, both the wife and the husband thrive under the influence of Christ like love and servant leadership. Servant hearted leadership. That’s what it points to. So when Paul says even you do this as Christ submits as a church rather submits to Christ, he is pointing out to us that this is the safest place for the church under the leadership of Jesus Christ. That’s why churches, they aren’t safe because they’re not under professing or they’re not practicing and they’re not safe. And Paul is emphasizing the safest place for Christ church is under the head of Christ. And that makes sense. It is stating the obvious, but it needs to be stated because that’s not where many churches are, even though some of them are very, very questionable. So in application then Paul saying the headship of a man or a man that is ruling or under or bleeding as Christ led the church, that is the safest place for the wife. That should be the safest place for the wife. The church submits to the one who laid down his life, who washes the feet of the disciple, who heal wounds, who carries the burdens, who never abuses his authority. Christ leads by giving himself all the way, not just a portion. It is every is his entire being. And this is the atmosphere in which Paul is speaking here to the wives. The submission he describes is not coer. It is a natural response to sacrificial love that the husband needs to be exhibiting to the wife. Natural response at its core submission is about trust. It’s about trust. Why do we submit to Christ? We trust Jesus Christ. We trust in him for salvation. We trust in him for our wellbeing of life. The church trusts Jesus Christ. Why? Because Jesus Christ has proven himself to be trustworthy. We trust Jesus Christ because he has proven himself to be faithful. He’s a forever faithful one. So in the same way Paul envisions a marriage where the husband Christlike love creates an environment where trust can flourish. This means the call of Artesians chapter five verse 24 is not a call for silence. It’s not a call for passivity. It is a call to a relational harmony within the marriage where each spouse reflects something of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The husband reflects Jesus Christ in self-giving sacrificial love for the wife and the wife reflects the church’s trusting response to that love that Jesus Christ is demonstrating to them or has demonstrated to us. So together the wife and the husband become a living parable of what the grace of God looks like. ’cause that’s what the church is the grace of God flourished on us. And even if you’re not married, this verse still speaks to you. Every believer is a part of the church. And the church’s posture towards Christ is one of joyful surrender. At least I hope we joyfully surrender to Jesus Christ. We trust him with our decisions and we should anyways. We trust him with our desires. We trust him with our wounds. We trust him with our future. We yield not because we are weak, which we are, but we we trust him and we yield because he is so good to us. We trust him because he is strong. We trust him because we can confide in his strength. We trust him because he alone can carry us. He alone can enable us and empower us to live the life that has called us to live. He alone can give us the strength and enablement to live in this crooked, corrupt world. We trust him. Yes, in one sense because we’re we. But we trust him because he’s strong and he is our head. And he knows best. He sees best. And he knows the direction in which he wants to lead us. And he wants to carry us and wants us first on to become more and more like him. Submission to Christ is not a loss, it is freedom. That’s why so many reject Christ because they see as a burn. They see it as a restriction. It is gonna hinder me from doing the things that I love. It is gonna hinder me from living the life that I want to live. But this is the best life you can live as a believer on this planet and better is to come. The best is yet to come because of what Jesus Christ did for us. It is not a burden. It is a freedom to submit ourselves through the Lord or our head of Jesus Christ. It is freedom of resting in the one who knows us fully. We knows us more than we know ourselves. He created us. It makes sense that he knows us fully and he loves us completely. Rather than being confide or diminished. Submission to Christ means being embraced by the love that is both intimate and unwavering. That’s what it means to submit ourself to Christ. Christ’s knowledge of us is total. He understands our fears. He understands our hope and our desires. He understands our failures, he understands our dream. And yet he loves us despite our flaws, but with a love that transforms and restores. So he doesn’t expect us to stay in those flaws and to live comfortable in those flaws. ’cause his love should motivate and spur us on to be transformed and to be restored to the way he wants us to live. This kind of submission is liberating because it releases us from the pressure to prove ourselves or to earn any kind of acceptance in Christ. We find the security that is not based on our achievements. It’s not based on our perfection, our imperfection, but on who he is and his faithfulness. Trusting God, trusting in Christ allows us to lay down our burdens. You don’t give something heavy to somebody who you don’t trust will be able to carry it. Trust in Christ allows us to lay down our burdens knowing that he can and will carry them for us. Because he promised us that cops are cares on him because he cares for us. He said, take my note is easing my burden is light. We are free to be honest to our head, Jesus Christ, we’re free to be vulnerable. We’re free to be authentic because as love covers and heals us. So in practical terms, this freedom means we can make decisions without fear. We can surrender our anxieties to him. We can entrust our lives to Jesus Christ in our head, our our gentle head. So the mission is not about passivity or silence. As I said earlier, it’s about active, joyful confidence in this context of Christ and the church. One who always seeks our good just as the church flourishes under Christ loving authority. So too does ever believe or thrive when we rest in his care. Ultimately submitting to Christ leads not to restriction, but to an abundant life that he has promised us it might not be great. There are gonna be bumps along the road. There are gonna be ups and downs. There are gonna be turmoil, there are gonna be circumstances and situations that we’re gonna come in. This is not the better rose without the thorns. It’s the better rose with the thorns. So you gotta get pricked from time to time. But he promises us an abundant life, a life marked by peace, a life marked by hope. Despite what we can face despite what will come our way. This is a life marked by assurance that we are truly known, that we are deeply loved by the one who is our head. As a body of believers, what does this mean for us in terms of this idea of submission? It means submitting ourselves to those that God has placed over us, the leaders in this community to be precise. This submission, again, is not blind. This submission is not unthinking obedience, but this submission is willingly trusting those that God has placed to lead and direct his body, his local assembly here in the same way that we trust Christ, just as the church joyfully surrenders, surrenders rather to Jesus Christ and his loving leadership. So to our believer, so to are we called to respect, to support, and to follow those who God has placed over us for our spiritual oversight. This posture when we live like this, fosters an environment of mutual respect, fosters an environment of accountability and care where leaders serve with humility. Where a leaders serve with wisdom, where a congregation respond with confidence and openness to their leaders. In practice, this means engaging in honest dialogue, praying for leaders, working, excuse me, working together to advance the mission of this church. All the while remembering that the true submission is rooted in love, is rooted in trust and a sheer desire to reflect Jesus Christ in this community. Once we get that, if you don’t get anything else from this sermon, remember that the relationship you are in and the submission that you are called to, whether it’s you as a wife, whether it’s this local assembly to the leaders and us to Christ is, is to reflect Jesus Christ in this community is to reflect the love of God that he has lavished upon us. So if you are a few purposes of submission, submission in the church again, is not about hierarchy for our own sake. It’s about unity. A community cannot flourish in constant resistance or suspicion. We can’t, if you’re constantly suspicious of your leaders, if you’re constantly suspicious of your spouse, there won’t be any unity that you won’t thrive in that kind of environment. So it’s about unity. It’s also about formation. Submission cultivates humility. It co, it cultivates patience and it cultivates teachability. It also points to the me, the mission of the church. A church aligned with her leaders or its leadership moves with clarity and moves with purpose. But another function of submission is also protection. The leadership keeps watch. Just like Jesus Christ watches over his walk, no one will ever be able to plop us out of his hand. Just as a husband protects the family. The church leaders keep flock, keep watch, rather over the flock, guiding, guarding them against error in spiritual harm in a culture that’s that prizes autonomy, prizes, suspicion of authority. Biblical submission becomes culture. Cultural witness. Whether it is you as a wife, whether it’s the body of Christ to Christ ahead, or whether it is the church locally to her leadership, it becomes a countercultural witness because this is uncultural or this being said here. So this looks like choosing trust over cynicism, receiving guidance rather than resisting it. Supporting your leaders through prayer, through encouragement, through cooperation, is engaging in honest, respectful dialogue. When concerns arise, that is the expectation for us as a body of believers. Yes, there is a direct immediate context or pause stating that why do you need to submit? But we need to remember that this is not something that is forced. It’s not something that is forced. And in the same way, if you keep telling somebody, I’m leader, I’m leader, it speaks bottom to the Father. You might be in that position, but you’re not really leading. If a husband is constantly saying, well I’m the head, I’m the head, I’m the head technically in one sense, where you’re not being the head as God expect, because it’s not something that is coerced, it’s, it’s something that should come naturally from the wifes in the same way, should come naturally from us as a body of believers to the leadership in the same way, should come naturally to us as a universal church, part of the universal church with Jesus Christ as our head. God is submission the world as completely tainted. And we touched on this in Sunday school where, how do we navigate when the world has taken something and tainted it so badly that we’re so afraid to touch it. We don’t even want to tip toe around it. We just want to avoid it all together because the world has made such an awful thing in my entire Christian life growing up, submission and hardship in the body of Christ, outside of it being referenced or related to Jesus Christ has never been seen, never been looked at in a positive light because of how the world depicts it. It doesn’t matter what the world says, it doesn’t matter how the world define it. God has his definition and his definition is final. His definition is complete. And that is where we stand on. That is what we stand on. We can’t take everything that the world has distorted. That’s the nature of the world. Just like it’s the nature, our spa, nature as men to use to dominate that headship just as the same way the wives did. This simple state is the US serve that headship authority. We can’t let the world dictate how we view the word of God. We have to take our stand against what the world is, is commonly is practicing and preaching. I guarantee you, in the context of the gre, if you know anything historically about the Greco Roman culture, this would be significantly abused in terms of the, the headship of the husband. I mean even the, the, the submission of the wife would’ve been significantly abused because it would be countercultural. So what Paul was saying here would not sit well with many of the congregation, probably because that’s not what they’re used to because the culture tells ’em something else. Where people of the word had hard truth from God’s word. Guess what? It’s still truth. And it still needs to be obeyed by God’s people. It didn’t write the Bible so we can like it. He wrote the Bible. So we have to obey. We can’t live, we can’t verbalize, um, full inspiration. All we’re all Genesis termination is fully inspired, but by our practice we’re saying all the certain parts are inspired. ’cause I don’t like this part. I’m not gonna live it. It is all or nothing. And that’s the demand we have to submit. Wives have to submit. Leaders need to have the congregate submit and we submit to Jesus Christ. As I said, next week we’re gonna turn the tide and we’re gonna focus on Julian and the husband. And it’s, it’s, um, back in the corner punches that are gonna be thrown. So gracious, we’re so great, so thankful for your great grace and your love towards us. We thank you so much, God, that you have enabled us through your spirit, even with these things that society has completely distorted these terms that have been thrown around so loosely and have been misrepresented, misinterpreted. God, I pray that we as your people will send truth to your word. Honor your word, obey your word. Not interpret your word as the culture interprets it, but interpret it the way that you intended it to be interpreted. We’re grateful God for your Holy Spirit, who is the only reason why we are able to live these life to to live a life as husbands, to love our wive so that they can freely, willingly submit to our leadership in the whole. And God may we as a church here moment, the Baptist Church recognize and realize the attack that the enemies placing on the homes. And that will take our standard so that it will never be named in our homes. And by default it will never come into this church. Give us your grace, Lord, as we seek to live this life in humble submission to you and your will for Christ sake. In Amen.