That church of yours has sure got
A strong conviction about how the women
Need to submit to the men.
It’s as if that conviction were God-powered―
Set on fire by the Spirit of God himself,
And burning bright within your souls,
Always to be honored, and never questioned.
And how interesting this is, for
I have seen a grievous evil under the sun, inasmuch as
That church of yours seems simultaneously clueless
To the fact that the very same God has commanded
All the men to submit to Christ in everything―
Including how they treat the women and children.
And yet, there are many brutes, bullies, blockheads
Among your men, immature and lacking in most
Of the fruit of the Spirit, and yet you boast
That things are going pretty well
That the women and children keep on submitting―
And naturally, that the men keep on submitting, too―
Not to Christ, but to the church leaders,
Regarding whatever matters that church of yours
Deems to be of actual importance.
That church of yours is, on this account,
A wolf in sheep’s clothing―
It is a cabal of rebellious men,
Operating under color of religion
To secure women and children servants
For themselves, while they themselves
Live in defiance to the very Lord to whom
They give lip service.
The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
Isaiah 29:13. NIV.
“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?”
Jesus. Luke 6:46. NIV.
18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them. 21 “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’
Jesus. Matthew 7:18-23. NIV.
Jesus warned of abusive people like this, saying:
“…do not do what they do, for they do not practice what they preach. 4 They tie up heavy, cumbersome loads and put them on other people’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to move them.
Matthew 22:3b-4. NIV
And what’s the big violation here?
22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Paul. Ephesians 5:22-24. NIV.
It was understood by all the Christians in the First Century that “the church submits to Christ”. But these men in that church of yours ignore this part (in yellow), even as they enforce the parts of this passage that are in orange.
The husband is not being the proper “head of the wife” if he is not doing it “as Christ is the head of the church”. That is, in the same way as Christ, with the same spirit and diligence and love and consideration and fairness and compassion and justice.
Further, verse 24 describes how the women are to submit to the husbands using the whole church and it’s submission to Christ as a model. Uh….what if the whole church is not submitting to Christ? What about that? What if the men are arrogant and consider themselves above having to listen to Jesus and to imitate his character? Then, how are the women to submit to the husbands? Are they to imitate that unruly church of which they are members? Are they to imitate the hard hearts of the men?
Obviously, Paul, who was very smart, was not envisioning a church so brazen as that, where submission to Christ would be set aside. Otherwise, he’d have been providing a loophole here for the women to be rebellious if the church was rebellious.
Yet here we are today, with thousands upon thousands of rebellious churches, and so many of the men in them straining out a “gnat” (That is, “…wives should submit to their husbands in everything”.) while they swallow the “camel” that they themselves (the men) don’t have to become like Jesus.
“…you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24 You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
Jesus. Matthew 23:23b-24. NIV.
Why would they insist that the women submit, but not that they themselves submit?
What’s the problem here? It’s that they don’t want to become like Jesus. That’s not why they’re in it. As it happens, they love the idea of the women and children in submission to them, and they are willing to submit to the male leadership of the church, regarding whatever rules that leadership has decreed. But they are not willing to submit their own spirits to Christ in becoming like him―in learning and growing and loving as Jesus modeled and taught. And this makes them lousy husbands and fathers. And they don’t care. And the official church institutions they presume to have, as if ordained by God himself, don’t care, either.
This is standard hypocrisy, and it ends up in tyranny.
That church of yours is incorrigible, and it is wrecking the lives of a great many women and children―some of whom are so deluded as not to see the tyranny and hypocrisy of it all. And some of them will stand right alongside the men, preaching this same tyranny with a smile on their faces.
And how can this be? How is it that they have become enablers of their wicked and lazy husbands?
This is a grievous evil, all around.
See also:
When the Church Refuses to Throw the Hypocrites Out
