Sermon Tone Analysis

The difficulty of Submission.

There was a young boy who loved to play marbles.

He regularly walked through his neighborhood with a pocketful of his best marbles, hoping to find opponents to play against.

One marble in particular, his special blue marble, had won him many matches.

During one walk he encountered a young girl who was eating a bag of chocolate candy.

Though the boy's first love was marbles, he had a weakness for chocolates.

As he stood there talking with the young girl, his stomach became uncontrollable, and he thought, I have got to get my hands on those chocolates.

Concocting a plan, he asked the girl, "How about I give you all these marbles for those chocolates?"

She replied, "Sounds fair to me."

He put his hand in his pocket, searching for the distinguishing cracks on the surface of the blue marble.

Once he identified the blue marble with his finger tip, he carefully pushed it to the bottom of his pocket and pulled out all the other marbles.

As he handed the marbles to the girl in exchange for the chocolate, the boy thought his plan was a success and turned to walk away.

As he began to eat the candy, he suddenly turned to the girl and asked, "Hey, did you give me all the chocolates?"

Our fallen nature persuades us to do the same deceptive and defiant attitude as the boy in this story.

We want everything the kingdom of God has to offer.

We want to have a secure sense of God's presence, we want all our prayers to be answered, we want to "feel close" to Jesus, we want to flourish in the riches of God's glory—we want it all.

Unfortunately, we are unwilling to give up everything for it.

Many times there is a "blue marble" in our lives that we seem unwilling to offer to the control of Christ.

Are wives really supposed to submit to their husbands?

I mean isn’t this the 21st century?

I thought we were passed all this?

Ahh but the beautiful thing about the Bible is that that its universal truths transcend all cultures and generations.

So today we can be sure that these words, that will never pass away, will give us real insight and clarity for our marriages today.

Especially when it comes to the topic of submission.

Now the answer really is simple, but because of the many cultural shifts and paradigm shifts, exponential changes in cultural norms and values, and the need to stay relevant and not to offend anyone makes the answer more difficult as simple as it is.

Egalitarianism and complementarianism discussions continue and more and more seem to drift further and further apart.

This shows a real dilemma when dealing with this subject.

I’m sure as I teach on this issue it may offend.

I’m sure.

Shane… “I don’t do the submission thing.”

But, the question you need to ask is, why?

Why does it offend?

And is there any biblical basis for your opposition?

Where does your strong beliefs in marital roles come from.

The Bible or Jerry Springer.

The reason I say this, is because the answer is very clear to me in the scriptures.

Are wives to submit to their husbands… the answer is yes!

It’s in the bible.

Clearly.

The reason I say this, is because the answer is very clear in the scriptures.

Are wives to submit to their husbands… the answer is yes!

Helper implies submission to the person given the task.

Adam had the responsibility he was given the task and Eve was given to help.

NT passages that point to OT realities...

How bout NT scriptures...

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever.

- Before we continue, this whole teaching is coming from the place that we are not looking at the Bible as some archaic work that needs modern revision, or something not relevant today, something only of value in the past, suggestions, a point of reference, or just myth and legends.

If this is what you think than what you hear may not be so helpful.

I am only dealing with what the Bible directs concerning submission with the understanding that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant in the originals, infallible in the originals, authoritative and sufficient word of God.

I. Submission to Christ

- As the church submits to Christ.

A. Ok.

So here we go.

One of the most controversial verses that for some reason is actually stated to relieve the duty of the wife to be in submission to her husband.

I am perplexed as to how is supposed to do this.

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Let’s get it right here today.

I cannot fathom the reasons for this misunderstanding of something so plain.

I wonder is it to sell books, gain popularity, being culturally acceptable, build a legacy…I dunno.

Maybe we do not want to offend.

Well we need to preach truth right?

And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Let’s get it right here today.

I cannot fathom the reasons for this misunderstanding of something so plain.

I wonder... is it to sell books, gain popularity, being culturally acceptable, build a legacy…I dunno.

Maybe we do not want to offend.

Well we need to preach truth right?

B. The apostle gives us a rundown of what he intends to communicate when he says be “filled with the Spirit in 3:18.

We are to do 5 things.

Address one another.

Sing.

Make melody.

Give thanks.

And the final participle…submit to one another.

Now without going deeper into the Greek which is going to bore you all anyway… let’s just deal with the issue at hand.

When he is saying submit to one another does he mean “mutual submission?” Husbands and wives are to submit to each other mutually?

C. Dr. Peter O’brien states that the Greek word here for submission literally means “to arrange under.”

It carries the picture of business organizational charts that tell employees who reports to who.

We’ve seen those before I’m sure.

Or the military chart showing the soldiers who are their superiors.

An ordered array.

Already, at first glance, we see that hupotasso in this passage already fails to mean mutual submission.

But let’s continue.

D. It is a wide view as to how it could mean mutual submission and it is very difficult to adequately defend this position with all of the very complicated and confusing interpretations of the original Greek and its bazaar syntax.

Dr. Kostenberger… but glean from the following verses what is Paul’s definition of “submitting to one another.”

It is clear that the answer is that wives are to submit to their husbands.”

Then when we read the following verses, Wives submit to husbands, children obey your parents, slaves obey your masters…ect.

We see that Paul is clearly not talking about mutual submission here.

- Dr. Peter O’Brien - The apostle is not speaking of mutual submission in the sense of a reciprocal subordination, but submission to those who are in authority over them.

E.Dr.

Peter O’Brien - The apostle is not speaking of mutual submission in the sense of a reciprocal subordination, but submission to those who are in authority over them.

E. Moreover… contextually we see that there is also a comparison to help us understand what Paul means… you are to submit to your husbands as the church submits to Christ?

This is the pattern and picture given to us as to how it is to be done.

Are we supposed to understand the church’s submission to Christ as mutual?

Is there really reciprocal subordination going on with us and Christ?

I think not.

Are we suggesting that there are times when Christ is to actually submit to the church?

F. - Everyone listen up… I want you to submit to each other.

Wives submit to your husbands, children obey your parents, slaves obey your masters… he is telling us what he means when he says to submit to one another.

He does not mean husbands, wives, children, slaves, masters, ect to all equally submit to each other?