Starting today, Wednesday, 2nd March we will have a midweek reflection on a bible passage. This reflection will follow the pattern of Scripture union’s, The Bible in a Year programme which many of you have been working through. If you have been following the programme day by day, then this Wednesday is equivalent to day 178 and the reflection relates to Ephesians chapter 5.
REFLECTION ON EPHESIANS 5
Consider
Throughout chapter 5 Paul emphasises the importance of unity and the need to lead a life free of “any kind of impurity” [3]. Towards the end of the chapter he turns his attention to practical domestic issues, his point being that, for the sake of credibility, church values of harmony and pure living must be reflected in the lives of church members.
The section opens at verse 22 with, “Wives submit to your husbands”, which in modern times, is one of the most controversial phrases in the bible. Some read this as a blueprint for the subjugation of women, yet with only a little context and closer examination it may be seen as a charter of genuine liberty.
In the ancient world women were held in disdain. A wife had no status and few legal rights; she was owned by her husband as a chattel and completely under his power. The idea of fidelity was non-existent so that “the whole atmosphere of the ancient world was adulterous.” [1]
Paul speaks into this darkness to tell of a new social order that reflects Jesus Christ who treated all people including women with courtesy and honour.
In this radical society all Christians have a duty to “submit to one another” [v21]. Submissiveness is a universal Christian obligation. If, therefore, it is the wife’s duty to submit to her husband, it is also the husband’s duty, as a member of God’s new society, to submit to his wife.
The submission of the wife is founded on the love of the husband not his desire to control. Three times Paul stresses that the husband’s headship of the household is based on his capacity to love. “Husbands love your wives [v.25]; “husbands should love their wives” [v.28]; “let each one of you love his wife.” [v.33]. Moreover, this love is to be self-sacrificial for the husband is to love as “Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her” [v.25].
Re-read
· Chapter Ephesians ch.5, at least from verse 22 to the end. To what extent to you think that the essence of Paul’s view on marriage is that, “Women submit, & husbands love”.
Reflect
· What does it mean to submit?
· What does it means to love?
· Could it be that both mean, to give yourself over to somebody?
· Are submission and love two sides of the same coin?
Pray
· Irrespective of your marital status pray for you relationship with Jesus.
· Is it based on submission and sacrificial love?
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