On Submission Part 2
3. Submission is not just an attitude. It is not a spiritual concept alone. Just like you cannot have the spirit of the law without the letter of the law, you cannot be submissive without being obedient to your husband's word, or to God's word, for that matter. Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, understanding comes with knowledge of the holy (Pro 9:10). In other words, understanding builds slowly, but the first duty we have is to trust and obey God, no matter if we see the point in His commandments or not. Maybe, I would even say most probably, after we obeyed His word for a while, understanding will follow. That's the attitude the church should have towards Christ, that's the attitude a wife should have towards her husband. If you obey with the wrong attitude, that is, with resentment, you have to work on your attitude. You can think of your husband as the head of the house all you want, but if he expresses his will and you don't follow it because you think you know better, you are rebellious, not submissive, just like you can say you love God all day long, if you do not keep His commandments, you show that you in fact do not love (or fear) God at all.
James says that faith without works is dead (Jas 2:17). In the same way, a submissive attitude alone is not enough, it is dead without actions, that is, without obedience to what your husband wants, asks, requires. All this puts the responsibility to actually lead, to have a vision and to lead his house accordingly, on the husband. Nowadays it seems that many women do not really know what submission is anymore because their husbands don't lead, but let them run the show, which is exactly the sin Adam and Eve committed in the garden (see Part 1, 1.).
Read on here:
Go to Part 4 here:
Go back to the beginning here:
