Being a Submissive Wife

May 21, 2017

The Q Before the A

Being a Submissive Wife,
Age of Accountability,
Mental Illness 

1. What does it mean to be submissive and follow your husband in the Lord?  What do you do if he is not leading you in the Lord?

Submission is your calling as a wife to honor and affirm your husband’s leadership in your home and to use your gifts to help him accomplish what God is leading you through together. 

John 5:19
Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner."

John 12:49-50
For I did not speak on My own initiative, but the Father Himself who sent Me has given Me a commandment as to what to say and what to speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life; therefore the things I speak, I speak just as the Father has told Me.

Submission is a way we honor authority in our lives. 

Ephesians 5:21-24
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.  For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

But that’s not the only place we see this idea of submission: 

Colossians 3:18
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 

Hebrews 13:17
Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with grief, for this would be unprofitable for you. 

Romans 13:1 
Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. 

Submission is NOT:
1. Submission is not blindly following without thinking or saying “yes sir” to everything. 

2. Submission is not ignoring your influence over your husband! 

3. Submission is not putting the will of your husband before the will of God.

4. Submission is not getting your spiritual strength from your husband With all of this, we have to have healthy priorities in life. And those priorities should be: GOD MY SPOUSE KIDS EVERYTHING ELSE 

So attacking specifically the question “what if my husband isn’t being a spiritual leader”? Underlying that is, “what if he’s not worth following?” 

1. He is worth following because you married him and promised before God you would do so 

2. Be sure you have a right perspective of a “spiritual leader”. 

3. Pray, pray, pray. 

4. Win him over by your actions. 
1 Peter 3:1
Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives

5. Be discipled. 
Titus 2:4-5
encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored. 

2. What is the age of accountability?

The age of accountability is the concept of an age where one becomes “eligible” to understand their sin, and thus need salvation from it.

Simple answer
:  It does not exist. It is literally not found in the Bible


Complex answer
:  This comes down to a question about your trust in God.
 This is a question of God’s sovereignty and grace.
  When we consider God’s character (love, grace, omniscience) and all that in encompasses we are left with one conclusion.


Scripture is filled with passages explain His care and understanding of His creation
(1 Peter 5:7, Matthew 6:25-34, Psalm 103:13, Matthew 10:30-31)


Luke 1:41-44
41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women,and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Matthew 18:2-4
2 He called a little child to him, and placed the child among them. 3 And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. 4 Therefore, whoever takes the lowly position of this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

The beauty of the Gospel is its incredible simplicity.

- I acknowledge that I am a sinner.

- I need Jesus to save me from my sin.

- I repent and ask Jesus to save me from my sin.

- Tell EVERYONE I know about what happened.


3. What does the Bible say about depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and other mental illnesses?

1. Depression and anxiety are real things.

2. Mental illness, just like physical illness
is a result of sin in the world.
I’m not saying that someone with a mental illness 
brought it themselves by sinning, 
but God’s original intention
 was that our bodies would never break down

.

3. We need to stop looking at mental illness
like it is an “untouchable” disease

.
When someone has a physical issue we take care of them, but when someone has a mental disorder, 
we treat them very differently

Matthew 25:40

'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'



4. Mental illness is not a simple thing.

It generally comes from some combination of these three things:
 physical issues, emotional scarring, and/or spiritual conflict.  


This is not a simple issue, 
so often not just one remedy can be used.



Matthew 17:14-18

14When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him. 15 “Lord, have mercy on my son,” he said. “He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water. 16 I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.”
17 “You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.” 18 Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of the boy, and he was healed at that moment.



1 Timothy 5:23

23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

…

We also see multiple emotional issues in the Bible
 where victims of abuse, rape, abandonment,
 and even their own lifestyle choices
 can lead to needing serious help


… So this stuff isn't just cut and dry




5. Healing from mental illness is possible


Depression, anxiety, and many other mental illnesses
 can be healed


.
- God can and sometimes does heal them.
- They can be healed, 
or at least have the effects lessened, 
through medicine.


- Getting counseling with a godly therapist
 can help heal.

6. Ultimately, we have hope.
Even though there may not be healing in this life,
 there will be healing in the next life 
for people that know Jesus.

Revelation 21:4
He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death' or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.


Communication Card

- As a wife, I will follow God first and foremost, and then submit to the leadership of my husband.
- I will trust in God’s sovereignty and grace as the assurance of my salvation.
- I deal with a mental illness and I need help.
- I will commit to be a support to people around me with mental illnesses.