MAKING MARRIAGE GREAT AGAIN
“SUBMISSION” Pastors Jerry & LaVerne
In the book of Esther (1:10-20) Queen Vashti was summoned to come to the King of Persia because he wanted to show off her beauty. Because she refused, the king’s advisors demanded she be punished by divorcing her because her actions could influence wives all over the kingdom in the way they submit to their husbands.
I am not saying whether Vashti should have submitted or not, but the point is that what people see us do in leadership, people under our leadership will be influenced by what they see in our relationship toward each other. Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, be subject (be submissive) and adapt yourselves to your own husbands as a service to the Lord.”
We definitely live in a society that does not like to hear the word, submit. Children do not like to submit to parents or any authority. Some women do not like the word. In the church ministers and leaders will see the greatest example of submission when the pastor and his wife understand this concept.
While there is mutual working together on the decisions and visions in the family, God still has a divine order of the husband as head of the home. He is not a dictator but oversees his home accepting his responsibility to lead his family spiritually and physically. The husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. He is to love her as he loves himself and nourishes and cherish her as Christ does the church. (Ephesians 5:23-29) This submission is done as a service to the Lord and when it honors the Lord. No submission should take place when one spouse is abusing the other or suggesting activities that do not honor the Lord. If the husband has the best interest of his family at heart rather than being self-centered, wanting only his own way, it will be much easier for family members to submit to the chain of authority as set in Scripture.
Has Gerald always made every decision correctly? NO. We agreed together to go forward as he has learned how to let God lead him. I can encourage and support Gerald as he leads our family. We have both chosen to share all the major decisions involving the family. The key is to realize that neither spouse is more important in the eyes of God than the other.
Even if the wife is in ministry or a pastor and her husband is not a part of this ministry, she still should allow him to be the head of their home as her husband.