What Does Submissive Mean?

By Paula Williamson, guest writer

The word submission causes most women to bristle. Misconceptions about wives submitting to their husbands conjure images of men as superior and of women wearing a muzzle over their mouths, forced to keep their opinions to themselves because only his matters. In Scripture, the word for submitting comes from a Greek word meaning to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Paul emphasizes that the role is not about dominance but about a relationship through the lens of Christ’s sacrificial, dying love for the church. It is mutually respectful, not about dominance, as if either the male or the female opinion were the only one that mattered.

It Is Written

EPHESIANS 5:22-23 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

1 CORINTHIANS 13: 4 -5 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs.

Mutual Love and Respect

We should commit to living with mutually honorable behavior. This is not only a commitment to others but also to ourselves. God does not value one sex over another. In Christ, there is no male or female, Jew or Greek, slave or free. The ground is level, and we are not to control or be controlled by dehumanizing, degrading, or humiliating behavior. Those who engage in such behavior are not practicing Christ’s sacrificial love.

Prayer

Lord, it is easy to misunderstand some things written in the Scripture. When the Pharisees asked You what the greatest commandment was, Jesus declared, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. MATTHEW 22:37-40 As we submit to one another as unto You, help us to do all things through the lens of love.

Takeaway

We submit to Christ because of His love for us.