Wives Will Want To Submit (Part 2)

Reading about how to be filled with and live from your spirit rather than your soul, I discovered something that will be very important to every wife and husband.  You know that part in the Bible that most woman hate?  The part about having to submit to their husbands?  Well, it turns out that if you read a little earlier, the Bible seems to indicate that you don’t have to submit.  You will want to submit.  The submitting will happen quite naturally when you are living from your spirit.  Husbands also will give up their lives for their wives naturally when they are living from their spirit.

Read what the Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5:17-30 NLT under the heading, Spirit-Guided Relationships: Wives And Husbands, “Don’t act thoughtlessly, but try to understand what the Lord wants you to do.  Don’t be drunk with wine, because that will ruin your life.  Instead, let the Holy Spirit fill and control you.”  [It sounds like you can be drunk with the Holy Spirit all the days of your life without all the deleterious effects of alcohol.]  “Then you will sing psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs among yourselves, making music to the Lord in your hearts.  And you will always give thanks for everything to God the Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”  [You are giddy when you live from the Holy Spirit.  You will have a happy “buzz” going.  Just another natural effect of being filled with the Holy Spirit.]

“And further,” [Not all Bible versions have ‘further,’ 'furthermore,' 'also,' or 'therefore' but that is a key word to understand this passage] “you will submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”  [Not all Bible versions have “you will,” but that’s another key phrase here.]  “You wives will submit to your husbands as you do to the Lord.”  [Which you would do naturally if you lived from your spirit.]  “And you husbands must love your wives with the same love Christ showed the church.  In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies.”  [Again, this should happen naturally if the man is filled with God’s Spirit and living from his God-filled spirit.]  “For a man is actually loving himself when he loves his wife.”  [That’s interesting.]  “No one hates his own body but lovingly cares for it, just as Christ cares for his body, which is the church.  This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.  So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”  Again, not all Bible versions have “Furthermore” or “you will,” but those are the key phrases here.  (My older Bibles didn’t have that translation, but my newer NLT’s do.)

Does it sternly mean “you will” because you have to, as in it’s your duty, you have no choice, as a parent issues an order to a child, “You will stop this foolishness right now!”?  I take it to mean that it’s a cause and effect.  “If you live from your spirit, you will naturally submit.”

Having it be this cause and effect is the only way I can see that this verse will work.  Otherwise you'd get tired of trying and become resentful at the duty.  Love should never be forced.  You shouldn’t have to continually fight to love someone.  It should come naturally.  If not, over time, you are going to wear out and give up, and that is not a good example of God’s love to the world because his love never tires out or gives up.

And having it read “Furthermore” ties the idea of living in the spirit to acting in different and better ways when you do live in the spirit.  When you live in the spirit (which you can choose do all the time), you will naturally behave better toward yourself and others.  Sacrificing yourself won’t seem like a sacrifice.  You will even do it joyously and with a "song in your heart," if you live from your spirit.  Wives and husbands no longer need to feel like they have to submit, but if husbands and wives are doing it right - living from their spirit - they will naturally submit with joy to one another.  That’s what I think Paul is talking about here.  And, that's what I've experienced!

It's been my experience that when I was dating my wife I would constantly think of nice things to do for her without trying. We honored each other effortlessly.  In fact, as an experiment, I tried to purposefully not think of nice things to do for her and I couldn't.  When you live by the spirit you get caught up in a current that carries you along and all you need do is watch the scenery as it goes by and enjoy the ride!