Women and Submission: We’ve Misunderstood This Verse
The evangelical feminists also try to make a a a more sophisticated argument here from the text. It goes something like this. You know, in in the Greek New Testament, you have the verb in 22 borrowed from 21. And so in 22, you just read wives to your own husbands, right? The the submission is inferred from verse 21.
And that’s really important because in verse 21 of Ephesians 5, it says, “Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.” So their argument is that based on that that what you have is mutual submission in the New Testament again. And this error is it’s it’s it’s everywhere again. Not everywhere. airware.
That’s beyond everywhere. Okay, it’s everywhere. People, you got verse 21. You got mutual submission. So, God calls us to mutual submission. Several problems with that. Problem number one is the verb that’s used there. The verb that’s used there, it’s a military term. It’s a military term for submission. And here’s a news flash.
I don’t know if you’ve ever been in the mil, you don’t even have to be in the military to know this fact that I’m about to tell you. In the military, submission works in only one direction. Amen. >> It works in only one direction. There’s another issue and that is verse 21 is the end of a paragraph. Verse 22 starts a new paragraph.
It’s it’s the end of a sentence and the end of a paragraph. And I don’t care what language you speak. You can have a language that goes from left to right or right to left. Uh but you do not have languages that go from back to front. You don’t start at the end of a paragraph. You have to start at the beginning of a paragraph.
Which means that if we’re going to understand verse 21, we have to go all the way back to verse 15. And this is important because it’s going to incorporate a whole lot of these other errors that we’re dealing with. So when you go back to verse 15, an amazing thing happens in beginning at verse 15, it it’s going to it’s going to open up like a telescope.
You have three contrasts. On the third contrast, you have three commands. And on the third command, you have three contexts. Okay, three contrasts. On the third contrast, three commands. On the third command, you have three contexts. All right, this won’t hurt. Let’s look. But it’s really important because it’s going to it’s going to open up even more of these errors that we that we deal with.
Verse 15. Look carefully then how you walk. Not as unwise but as wise making the best use of the time because the days are evil. That’s a contrast. Not this but that. Right? Now look at verse 17. Therefore do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is. Right? Not this but that. That’s a contrast. It’s contrast number two.
Here’s contrast number three. Verse 18. Do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery but be filled with the spirit. There’s the third contrast, right? We following? Okay, there’s the third contra. On the third contrast, you get three commands and they’re related to the third contrast. Look at verse 19.
