Submit to one another
Pastor Todd Blansit
New Life Church
February 4, 2024

To “submit to one another” (Ephesians 5:21) is not based on the merits of the other person—believers aren’t to submit to one another because others deserve it; rather, they are to submit to one another in the fear of Christ.

Klyne Snodgrass puts it well:
"The important point in focusing on mutual submission is that the husband’s being head does not result in some position of privilege. It is a position of responsibility in which the husband is to love his wife and give himself for her, care for her, and nurture her (Eph. 5:25, 28-29). If the wife is asked to submit to the husband and the husband is asked to love and give himself for his wife, is the wife being asked to do more in submitting than the husband is in giving himself? I certainly do not know what it would be. In the new reality revealed by Christ, what the world sees as the polar opposites, authority, and submission, are collapsed together and work together in service and love for others."

It doesn’t mean you lose your voice, it means you use it to push him to Godliness.

(1 John 4:18) There is no fear in love!!! You are not obligated to stay in an abusive relationship.

Submission doesn’t mean you should have to live in fear.

Jesus’s love covers but doesn’t smother us. His love covers our shortcomings with unconditional love and forgiveness. It provides and protects. It guards and guides. The Lord fights on our behalf and does all He can to see us walk in our true identity and calling. He doesn’t control or manipulate us. He invites us into partnership with him.