Reply To: Principles Of Marriage And Family Discussion Board

[Paulpraze]

The instruction for the woman to submit to her own husband does not imply or indicate that she should not love her husband for the following reasons.
1. God’s command to the new creature (kainos ktisis) is lo love.
Regardless of the kind of relationship that a believer finds himself in, he is expected of God to love others, especially those of the household of faith, in the same way that Christ loves us.
JOHN 13:33-34.
ROMANS 13:8
I JOHN 3:14.
I JOHN 4:7-8
This command already gives a background to the relationship between herself and her husband, and implies that she ought to love her husband in the same way that Christ loves her, as her status as a believer is not suspended in her marriage relationship with her husband.
Furthermore, not only is her status as a believer not suspended in her marriage relationship with her husband, but also that it is expected that this status be the basis from which every aspect of her life is coordinated from. Being a believer has to be evident in every area of a believer’s life.
God us love, therefore, as children of God, who have received of His nature and fullness, His love ought to be flowing out of us in every relationship that we may find ourselves in, and even more so from a wife to her husband.
JOHN 1:16.
ROMANS 5:5.
2 PETER 1:4.
2. It is noteworthy to mention that in the new Testament, the idea of submission to authority in the Christian context is premised on the presence and activity of love (agape), so that one of the ways that we respond to God’s love is absolute submission and obedience to Him.
3. Paul, in PHILIPPIANS 2, tells us of Jesus’s submission to God, even unto death, without speaking about His love for His Father.
However , what is abundantly clear from the Scriptures is that the Son loves the Father as much as the Father loves the Son, and that His submission, as recorded in PHILIPPIANS 2, is a result of His love for His Father, as well as His love for mankind.
JOHN 14:31.
This truth is further buttressed by Jesus’s definition of loving Him. He makes it clear, that one major expression of loving the Lord is obedience.
JOHN 14:15.
According to the English dictionary, obedience can be defined as follows;
Compliance with an order, request, or law or submission to another’s authority.
In other words, by God’s design, submission to another’s authority, which is what Paul admonishes the woman to do in a marriage relationship, ought to be an offshoot of love.
Therefore, the admonition for a woman to submit to her clearly underscores the presence and activity of love. I would even go further as to say that the more a woman loves and trusts her husband, the easier it is to submit to him.
In conclusion, the instruction for a woman to submit to her husband does not in any way imply that she is not supposed to love her husband.