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Rightly Dividing
the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15)
Established November 2008 Published
Weekly on Friday AM
This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Savior, who desires all men (and women) to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. (1Timothy 2:3-4)
Ephesians (5:21-23)
(Lesson 27)
Welcome one and all
to our study of our Apostle Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
In Chapter 5 Paul commanded
and encouraged all true Believers to be “imitators
of God as beloved children” (5:1). Instead
of walking hand-in-hand with this darkened
world (5:16), the saints in Christ Jesus are to “walk in love, (with this goal) just
as Christ also loved you” (5:2); they are to “walk as children of Light” (5:8); “walking not as unwise men (and women) but as wise” (5:15); making
the most of your time (5:16a), and Always
giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even
the Father (5:20).
In this Paul is
saying the true Believer’s life will not resemble their former life. In response to all that God has done for them
(5:2) they’re to walk carefully (5:15). We’re to live our lives according to God’s
expressed will, totally dependent on
His Word and the Holy Spirit’s power
demonstrating genuine love for one another (Romans 12:10).
Thank you for faithful
attendance.
********
Let’s
begin where we left off last week.
Please open your Bible at Ephesians 5:21-23.
Ephesians 5
We
find our Apostle Paul continuing to teach on the subject of the true Believer’s
walk here introducing two additional
commands from the risen Lord:
…and be subject to one another
in the fear of Christ (5:21).
(And)
Wives be subject to your own husbands,
as to the Lord (5:22).
Paul
immediately gives the reason for this godly conduct: 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 (5:23).
Beginning
at verse 5:21 where Paul said, “… and be
subject to one another in the fear of Christ” - the word “subject” in Koine Greek is Hupotasso
(hoop-ot-as’-so), Verb, Strong’s Greek #5293. The Greek military meaning of “subject” is “to arrange troop divisions in a military fashion under the
command of a designated leader. Its
non-military use conveys the meaning of:
a voluntary attitude of giving in,
cooperating with one another.
Taking
this into account, we understand the word “subject”
to mean: “to set something in place up
under something else.” Do you
realize no matter who you are or where you presently stand with the Lord Jesus
Christ, you submit to authority every single day. Children submit
to parental authority around the clock.
Adults submit to the laws of their
state while driving to work and upon arriving at work they submit to the authority over
them. Every time you sign and remit your
annual income taxes to both your state and the federal government, you are submitting to the proper authority. You may not agree with how your tax dollars
are being used or how the government is being managed, but this thinking has
nothing to do with the other. Your submission in each of these examples
has to do with an ordered arrangement, under the command of a designated leader; and your voluntary attitude of cooperation is
required.
I
had many designated “leaders” while serving in the military, some were
competent, and others, not so much. But
in every case, when an order was issued, obedience (submission) was mandatory. I did not possess the right to question any
order; my duty was to carry it out to the best of my ability or face the consequences. In some cases, failure to perform my
responsibilities could result in the loss of life!
Gaius
Julius Caesar Octavianus was a revered and powerful man in Jesus’ day. No human on earth was more powerful, when he
spoke, the people obeyed, or else (Luke 2:1).
So, the Lord’s enemies attempted to trap Him into making a treasonous
statement publicly: They came and said to Him, “Teacher, we know that You are truthful and
defer to no one; for you are not partial to any, but teach the way of God in
truth. Is it lawful to pay a poll tax to
Caesar or not?”
And Jesus (fully aware of the
condition of their hearts) said to them,
"Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's,
and to God the things that are God's.
And they were amazed at Him”
(Mark 12:17).
Jesus
isn’t drawing a line between human government and God here. He’s saying honor them both by giving what
rightfully belongs to them. Now, let’s
marry this thought with what Paul wrote in Romans 13:1: Every
person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities.
For there is no authority except
from God, and those which exist are established by God.
The
Sovereign God and mighty Caesar did not answer to a higher authority. Their authority is clearly one-directional, meaning
it’s not reciprocal, i.e. shared authority
and this is line with the Greek word Hupotasso. Paul’s not talking about “mutual
submission.” Instead, be subject, as it’s used here means: an ordered relationship in which one person
is over and another is under the other.
Because
Paul has commanded the churches to “be
subject to one another” I rationalize the Believers were behaving poorly in
this area. If this wasn’t a corporate
problem, there would be no need to issue this command. Paul’s saying the body of Christ is to be subject (Hupotasso) to that person who has been given authority over them (Romans 8:7, 13:1; Ephesians 1:22, 5:24; Titus
3:1). Said differently, those who are under the Spirit’s control are
to be submissive to those who have
been placed in authority over them.
This
thought intentionally leads us into 5:22-23.
God’s
Design for the Family
I’ve
heard it said, “God designed marriage, so
He gets to define it.” Therefore
we’re to pay attention to what He has said re:
this topic and not Oprah.
Ephesians 5:22-23
Wives be subject to your own husbands, as to
the Lord. For the husband is the head of
the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
The
term “one another” (5:21) stands as
the introductory phrase for this section of scripture. But let’s be clear it isn’t referring to
“mutual (reciprocal) submission,” as some people teach. If this was true, Paul would have also written: “Husbands
submit to your wives.” We note that
phrase is not found in scripture.
Therefore God has purposed hierarchical authority in the Believer’s household with these words: “Wives
be subject to your own husbands (how),
as to the Lord.
That
should tell you all you need to know. The
Lord commands and we obey, in love. One day future all things will be summed up in Christ whether in heaven or on earth. Jesus Christ will be the Lord of all (Romans
14:11; Ephesians 9-10; Philippians 2:10).
Nowhere in scripture does it say the Lord is subject to us.
Now,
it is human nature to find fault with Paul’s statement and people have resisted
and spoken out against it since Paul dictated the command to his scribe, but
always remember our Apostle Paul is the spokesperson for God’s one Church.
If
you’ll spend some time studying the history of this period, you’ll learn women
possessed few rights. While the man’s
responsibility was seen as public, women’s rights were restricted almost
entirely within the home. Women could
not testify in court, which put them in the same category as Gentiles, minors,
and deaf-mutes. This also includes
“undesirables” such as gamblers, the insane, and those who loaned money at
exorbitant rates. Customarily, a woman
was not permitted to engage in commerce, and was rarely seen outside of the
home. If she was seen outdoors, she was
heavily veiled and prohibited from conversing with men. Study the Muslim countries and you’ll find women
still have few rights.
Enter
the Lord Jesus Christ and our Apostle Paul.
Jesus Christ is considered a Revolutionary for many reasons. He wasn’t afraid to challenge the accepted
thinking of the day. In fact, His
teachings were considered “radical” by the Jewish religious leaders. He included women in His ministry as did Paul. Both took the women out of the shadows and
brought them into the Light (Matthew 15:28; Luke 4:14-19; John 11:26-27; Acts
16, 17:17, 18:2; Romans 16:1-2, 6). To
be clear, Paul did more to advance the rights of women in the church than any
other individual in history. And yet
both he and his writings are vilified by the very people he was assisting.
To
get a handle on this church teaching (the world
has its own view) we need to go back to the beginning (the book of Genesis) where
the LORD God established the marriage covenant between one man and one woman.
I
said covenant on purpose. The Bible
never mentions the term “marriage contract,” that’s man’s legal view of this
religious ceremony. If I’ve learned anything
after two divorces and a couple of home sales that fell through, I’ve learned a
good lawyer can nullify any contract, which means contracts aren’t worth the
paper they’re printed on.
Looking
to this book, we find there are many different covenants in the Bible; however,
there are only two types of covenants conditional and unconditional. Marriage is a good illustration of a covenant
because a man and a woman choose to enter into the relationship and they make
promises (vows) to one another and to God openly.
The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable
for him.” Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the
wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he
would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its
name. So the man gave names to all the livestock,
the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. But for Adam no suitable helper was found.
So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was
sleeping, he took one of the man’s ribs and then closed up the place
with flesh. Then the Lord God made a
woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to
the man. The
man said, “This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called
‘woman,’ for she was taken out of man.” That is why a man leaves
his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one
flesh.
There’s
a lot going on here, but I’m going to focus on three important things that are
pertinent to our study.
1)
The woman here is called the man’s suitable helper. In Hebrew
(the language of the O.T.) the word helper, as used in Genesis 2:18, 20 is
translated from the word Ezer (ay-zer)
and it is always and only used in the O.T. in the context of vitally important
and powerful acts of rescue and support.
In Genesis 18:4, Moses named one of his sons Eliezer, which in Hebrew
means, “My God is my helper) – Eli = my God; ezer = helper. Moses named his son
Eliezer after the LORD God delivered him from Pharaoh’s sword.
Now,
let’s look at the qualifying word appearing before “helper,” and that’s the word “suitable.” In Hebrew this word is Kenegdo. This word is never
used to describe a subordinate. Most of
the time when you see this word in the O.T. it is used of the LORD God in His
role as rescuer, savior, and protector
(Exodus 18:4; Deuteronomy 33:7). Thus, it
conveys the meaning the woman was
designed by the LORD to be the man’s
equal partner. There is no hint of her being
subordinate to the man, although some people read it this way; and that would
be incorrect (Genesis 2:7). The truth is
she was a full-partner in the marriage covenant. She completed the man.
2)
The married couple is not to remain under
their parents’ roof. They are to leave their father and mother and cleave to one another, united as one,
and then establish their own domicile. Responsibility
shifts from the parent’s to the newlyweds.
They are to make their own way, united, as one. This was in keeping with the LORD God’s
command to “be fruitful and multiply,
and fill the earth, and subdue it” (Genesis 2:28).
3)
The woman was taken from the man’s “side-chamber.” The
man said, “She is the bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh.” The marital bond between
husband and wife is meant to be so strong; one could not leave the relationship
without causing extensive damage to self and others. If you’ve suffered the pain of divorce, then
you know it’s destroyer of hopes and dreams and fractures family relationships. These are a few reasons why “God hates divorce” (Malachi 2:16; 1
Peter 3:7). Divorce is man’s way out of
a jam, but God has said “No” to divorce except for one reason – infidelity.
Thus
Ephesians 5:21 to 6:9 give Believers practical examples of the Spirit-filled
life we are to walk, in love. Put
another way, “This is truly where the rubber meets the highway of life.” These three areas are where we have an opportunity
to show the difference the Lord has made in our lives because almost everyone has
to deal with one or more of these on a daily basis: our
marriage, our home, at our workplace.
Here Paul begins with the marriage relationship: Wives be subject to your own husbands, as to
the Lord we find the reason for this behavior in 5:23: For
the husband is head of the wife as also Christ is the head of the
church, He Himself being the Savor of
the body.
Paul
wrote similar commands to the other churches:
But I want you to
understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head
of a woman, and God is the head of Christ (1 Corinthians
11:3).
For man does not
originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for
the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake (1 Corinthians 11:8-9).
Wives, be subject
to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord (Colossians 3:18).
For it was Adam who
was first created, and then Eve. And it
was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into
transgression
(1 Timothy 2:13-14).
These
verses are not difficult to understand, but it does require the Spirit-filled
Believer to walk in accordance with
God’s expressed will. However, I’ve found this to be a problem in
the Christian home; my own
included. My parent’s marriage ended in
divorce. This was heart-breaking and a
bit more than disconcerting to the rest of the family. In March of this year I suffered my second
divorce, after 16 years of marriage. She
told me she still loved me; she just didn’t want to be married to me any longer… One
of the reasons she petitioned for divorce was this passage of scripture
(5:22-23). You have to understand my
ex-wife had her beliefs (religious traditions) and these often contradicted with
what God has actually said. When I
attempted to teach her the meaning of this verse, she told me I was trying to
dominate her. She also said this was my
opinion; the Bible doesn’t actually say this.
She was obviously frustrated with marital life because she included my
poor health as an additional reason.
However, our separate views regarding what God said and did not say
placed a permanent wedge in our marriage relationship. She placed her complete trust in her Baptist
upbringing. I informed her many times I don’t
believe in “labels” I am merely a Believer of what God said. Besides that, I was her 5th
husband, so she had a history of leaving and not cleaving! Clearly, my ex-wife had not been taught
scripture, rightly divided, or accurately, and despite my best efforts, she
continued to resist the truth.
So,
before we go any further, I point out there are certain political groups and
people, in general, who disagree with these commands from Paul, which
essentially mean they disagree with what God has plainly said. In short, the vast majority of Christian homes today are not following
along with God’s blueprint for success
or His expressed will for the
marital relationship. Because of this I
know many people reading this will disagree with what has been written here, but
I point out I’m merely the messenger or your guide.
The
term “be subject” in 5:21 is equal to the term “be subject” found in
5:23. Both these words in Koine Greek are
Hupotasso. Once again, this word does not mean “mutual
submission;” it means a “one-directional”
authority.
For the husband is head
of the wife as also Christ is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body – the Koine Greek
word head is Kephale (kef-al-ay’), Noun Feminine, Strong’s Greek #2776, and it
means: anything supreme, chief, or prominent.
Of persons: master or lord; of a
husband: in relation to his wife. Here Paul speaks of government
(management) or God-given authority
(Romans 13:1).
The
idea being expressed here is the husband, being the head of his wife speaks of a position of authority and responsibility.
It is not saying the husband is superior and the wife is merely a
“step-n’-fetch” or inferior. Our pride
was undone at our conversion. If not,
you need to work on it. The wife may
possess abilities and skills that exceed her husband’s; however, we’re not
talking about those attributes here we’re talking about order and God’s divine purpose.
Paul’s
comments in 1 Corinthians 11:3 come to mind:
But I want you to (what) understand that Christ is the head
of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of
Christ. This follows the order of
creation, as Paul points out in 1Timothy 2:13:
For it was Adam who was first
created, and then Eve. It also follows the purpose of our
creation for the woman was created
to be the compliment of the man, and
not vice versa. Again, this is not how
the world views this subject, and this explains why more than 50% of marriages,
even Christian marriages, end in divorce. God said follow His blueprint for
success and you’ll have a successful marriage.
The
Believer’s love for one another is fostered and will proceed to flow out of a
marriage that displays the attributes described by Paul in Philippians
2:3-7: Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind
regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own
personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was
also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not
regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the
form of a bond-servant, and
being made in the likeness of men.
God
will hold those husbands accountable for how they choose to lead their wives
and families in godliness, but it’s also true God will hold the wives accountable
for how they followed their husbands godly lead (5:24).
The
Apostle Peter’s words stress this point more than Paul: In the
same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands so that even if any of them are disobedient to the
word, they may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives, as they
observe your chaste and respectful behavior. Your adornment must not be merely external—braiding the hair,
and wearing gold jewelry, or putting on dresses; but let it be the hidden person of the
heart, with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is
precious in the sight of God (1 Peter 3:1-4).
Bear
in mind these apostles are not saying submission means zero limits. First, your submission is to God and then
your husbands. You cannot submit to
anything that contradicts God’s expressed will or His commandments, “…for we are to obey God rather than men.”
You
also do not have to suffer your husband’s abuse. This is clearly stated by Paul in 1
Corinthians 7:10-11: But to the married I give instructions, not
I, but the Lord, that the wife should not (what) leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried,
or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce
his wife.
Divorce
is not an option for a Believer. I wish
my ex-wife would have devoted more time to Bible study, perhaps then we would
not be in this present situation. I say
this because I honestly don’t believe she’s aware of this comment from Paul: “…and
the wife must see to it that she
respects her husband” (5:33b).
No
one is perfect, we all have our failures and our successes in life, there are
things we are good at, and there are things we struggle to achieve. But the Bible doesn’t say your husband has to
be perfect for their wives to respect
them. The only perfect Man was nailed to
a Roman cross.
People
are rebellious in nature which explains why they disagree, outright, with the statement
the woman was created for the man’s sake. But, if you read the account in Genesis
again, you’ll find the woman didn’t argue about her marital role, she walked in
it. So, when the true Believer puts God
and His Word above all else, they demonstrate their spirit-filled walk to this
God-hating world.
(To
be continued)
©
Copyright 2011
GJ
Heitzman’s Ministry
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