Why I Don’t Make a Disclaimer on Every Post About Submission

Why I Don’t Make a Disclaimer on Every Post About Submission

Whenever I write about submission, women have a tendency to come up with all of the exceptions, mostly, “What if he asks you to sin?” One woman wrote, “I almost agree completely with this article, but find it strange that she doesn’t make a simple disclaimer that we are not to submit to our husbands if they are asking us to sin or break the law. We are first and foremost subject to Christ. I agree that 99.9% of the time, there is little to no room for not submitting, but you are not disobeying God in a case in which your husband is leading you to sin against God’s word, which does happen, sadly.”

God’s Word doesn’t give the exceptions so why should I? Instead of focusing on the .1% exception, why don’t they focus upon learning to be submissive and see what happens? Since women have the ability to build up their home or tear it down with their own hands AND win their disobedient husbands without a word by being in subjection to them with godly behavior, why isn’t their first reaction, “Since this is God’s prescription for me, I am going give 100% to learning how to be a godly, submissive wife and leave the results up to the LORD”?

Maybe, just maybe, women do have an amazing amount of power for good in their husbands’ lives if they just believe God and obey Him, instead of trying to figure out the .1% exceptions. The same issue is concerning keepers at home. If instead of looking at all the ways they can’t come home, why not believe God, obey Him, go home, and see how He works? I am sure God works on a disobedient husband in mysterious ways for good when a wife goes about winning him without the word and I am also sure He can provide for mothers to be home full time with their children; for NOTHING is impossible with Him.

Finally, when studying and learning the Word of God, we take it as a whole. We know that we are not supposed to murder or steal. We know we aren’t to be adulterers or participate in any type of sexual immorality, therefore, if your husband asks you to participate in something that is strictly forbidden in the Word and evil, then you have every right to not obey your husband. We must always take the Bible as a whole and not by piecemeal but I’m not going to make exceptions every single time I write about submission. I expect most women to be wise enough to know that they shouldn’t obey their husbands if they ask them to participate in something that is evil or harmful to them.

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.
Ephesians 5:22-24

5 thoughts on “Why I Don’t Make a Disclaimer on Every Post About Submission

  1. Lori,

    Isn’t it truly mind-boggling how the tendency of our flesh is to focus on the 1% impossibility? That 1% improbability? The one tree in the garden of which the LORD God said, “Thou shalt not eat”?

    God’s Word will never instruct us to do something that He has not given the strength to do.

    Stated without the negatives, for everything God’s Word instructs us to do, His joy is the strength by which we can accomplish it.

    Because of one woman like Mrs. Connie Hultquist— ONE woman— my understanding is opened to the fact that, if one woman like she chose to be, if one wife like Connie decided to be (“I want to be that wife whom the Bible says can win her husband by her 99 acts of love and her one unspoken word”), if one wife can choose to cultivate a Bible-teachable spirit and win her husband, literally reaching into the flames of hell to rescue his soul from eternal damnation, then I can choose to cultivate a Connie-like fortitude, a husband-focused attitude, and act upon one godly decision after another, aiming at what I CAN do versus the 1% “exemption” to God’s “rules.”

    It only takes one thing to change everything.

    Lori, you are teaching us to try God. Just try Him! Just try it His way! Just try Him and see if He won’t rain and Sonshine upon your one tiny effort’s seed. Oh, the fruit of trying God! Jesus never fails! If Connie did it, I can do it! If Queen Esther did it, I can do it! If Lori did it, I can do it! If I did it, any wife can! Just try ONE of God’s ways on this one day alone and see what happens! Prove Him! Trust Him! Doing it God’s way works, 100% of the time!

    *hugs*
    Kelley~

  2. I just went to a wedding where the officiant talked about headship and submission. He told the groom that he was to love his wife unconditionally and sacrifice everything for her. He told the bride that submission did not mean she had to be a doormat and it did not mean her opinion didn’t count and it did not mean her husband was allowed to bully her. He said absolutely nothing about what submission really meant, only what it did not mean.

    This is also a problem with sermons about Ephesians 5 that spend 90% of the time talking about the husband’s responsibility, 9% about mutual submission, and 1% listing the things submission do NOT mean.

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