It’s great to have you join us this Wednesday. I hope that you are having a good week. The Bible focus for today’s podcast is Ephesians 5 vs21-33, and the theme is ‘Submit to Love.’

REFLECTION

Throughout his letter to the Ephesians, Paul makes it clear that we are in a spiritual battle, and that forces of evil will seek to entice us onto a downhill slide away from God, or try to snuff out the light of Christ that is reflected in a life overflowing with thanksgiving. So this is why he begins to write about our closest and dearest relationships – wives and husbands, children and parents – because he knows they are THE prime target for the Devil; who seeks to destroy them, and bring disunity right to the heart of our homes.

Some people struggle with this passage because they feel it encourages a cultural system in which women are disempowered in a male dominated society. As a History graduate, I am well aware of how women have been treated and viewed throughout the ages. But God invented marriage all the way back in Genesis, and he did this before the human race had come up with any legal systems, voting rights, or money and property laws. To me, as a follower of Jesus, I want to know about God’s original plan and design for my life, and so it seems foolish to read the Bible solely through the lens of everything that has happened since that point in Creation. As a woman, and a wife, I don’t consider these verses in Ephesians to be outdated, controversial, sexist or negative. But that doesn’t mean to say that they are not challenging. However, they are challenging to all people, at all times, whether they are male or female, whether they are single, married, divorced or widowed; because this passage is about all of our relationships, just as much as it is about wives and husbands.

But let’s name the elephant in the room…….the difficulty that many people have with this passage is the word ‘submit.’ A dictionary definition says that to submit means “to accept or yield to a superior force.” Okay, you say, but that doesn’t sound any better at all!

But what is this superior force that we are asked to submit to? I have found reading verses 25-27 from the Message translation really helpful in answering this question. It says:

“Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church – a love marked by giving not getting. Christ’s love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. And that is how husbands ought to love their wives.”

The love of God is the superior force. An absolutely amazing, generous, overflowing, encouraging, releasing and sacrificial love. A love that fulfils us and makes us complete. A love that was perfectly lived out and made real to us in the person of Jesus Christ. When I made a decision to commit my life to Jesus, I freely chose to submit to him because of his amazing love for me. Dominance, control and coercion had no place in that decision.

Later this year Alan and I will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary. I love my husband very much, but it is fair to say that we are completely opposite in so many things:

I like forward planning, writing lists and detail. Alan does not.

Alan is a fan of early mornings and early nights. I like waking up late and going to bed after midnight.

Alan is cautious about spending large sums of money. I am definitely not.

On paper there may be 101 reasons why Alan and I are different, where the Devil could seek to bring disunity, but what I enjoy most about being married is that Alan is totally for me. He will go all out to see me flourish, he wants the best for me – he is passionate about seeing me become the woman God wants me to be, his primary aim is what he can give to me, not get from me. Dominance, control,