What Does Submission Really Mean?

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What Does Submission Really Mean?

by Barbara Rainey

In the same way, you wives, be submissive to your own husbands.

1 Peter 3:1

There is no doubt that a wife's "submission" is one of the most controversial concepts in the Bible. Just mention the word and many women immediately become angry and even hostile. This subject of submission has been highly debated and misunderstood.

The dictionary doesn't help because it defines submission in a negative way. As a noun it means "subservience and abasement." As an adjective it means "nonresisting, unassertive, docile, timid, passive and subdued."

Who wants to be described like that? I certainly don't. These negative definitions of submission often lead to abuses of the concept by husbands who fail to understand its biblical meaning and the man's role in a marriage.

Some husbands and wives actually believe submission indicates that women somehow are inferior to men. Or that women have no right to challenge something their husbands say or do. Submitting doesn't mean that you tolerate abuse or neglect.

It does mean respecting your husband and allowing him to lead in your relationship. It means interacting with your husband on a key decision, sharing your perspective as his partner and then trusting your husband. It means being supportive in what he does right.

My husband needs my voluntary submission in order to become the servant-leader God wants him to be. And when [my husband] loves me the way he is commanded to, it is easier for me to submit to him and his leadership.



Discuss: In what ways, as a woman, are you thankful for your husband's leadership?

Pray: That submission and authority will not be a problem in your home.

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Excerpted from "Moments Together for Couples" by Dennis and Barbara Rainey.
Used with permission. Copyright 1995 by Dennis and Barbara Rainey. All
rights reserved.