Scripture Passage
And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. (Ephesians 5:21 NLT)
Observation
Ephesians 5 (like chapter 4 before it) is full of challenging directives for daily living—particularly with regard to our relationships. There are challenging words for wives and husbands, parents and children, slaves and masters. In many cases, these have become words we love to use as weapons, setting out boundaries no one dare cross and lobbing pot shots at each other from “our” side of the camp. Husbands remind wives of how they’re to be submitted to, and wives remind their husbands of how they’re to love. Parents remind children that they’re to be obeyed and children suggest that if they’re exasperated by parental action, ignoring parental authority is somehow justified. The matter of slaves and masters we disregard, as we don’t know quite what to do with that, rather than drawing principles for offering either God-honoring employment or diligent labor (depending on our role) in our 21st century culture.
What we often forget is that this whole section of Scripture begins with a call to mutual submission. “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21 NLT). So Paul’s intent is not so much to define roles and articulate boundaries as it is to express ways in which every redeemed person can communicate his or her submission to the whole—to Christ and who He is and what it means to be a part of His body in the earth today!
Particularly with regard to marriage, Paul says when we do these things, we portray to our world the relationship between Christ and the Church. Apparently, though, we’ve not done much of a job. Not only do fewer and fewer people have any interest in Christ and His Church, fewer and fewer have any interest in marriage itself! Our relationships are supposed to be rich and real enough to invite people to Christ, and they’re apparently not even inviting in and of themselves!
Well, that calls for change, doesn’t it? A change in me, and perhaps a change in you, and most certainly changes in how we relate to one another.
“Lord, let us learn this grace of mutual submission out of reverence for You!”
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