What Submission Means (and Doesn’t Mean) for Wives
During a wedding rehearsal, the groom approached the pastor with an unusual offer: “Look, I’ll give you $100 if you’ll change the wedding vows. Just leave out the part about ‘love, honor and be faithful to her forever.’ He slipped the minister a $100 bill and walked away satisfied.
On the day of the wedding, when it came time for the groom’s vows, the pastor looked the young man in the eye and said, “Will you promise to obey her every command and wish, serve her breakfast in bed every morning of your life, and swear eternally before God that you’ll never even look at another woman, as long as you both shall live?”
The groom gulped and looked around, and said in a tiny voice, “Yes,” then leaned toward the pastor and hissed, “I thought we had a deal.”
The pastor put the $100 bill into the groom’s hand and whispered, “She made me a better offer.”
We laugh at how extreme those wedding vows are, but many people today would look at our text-and say “That is extreme.” 1 Pet. 3:1 says, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands…”
Why does that idea sound so repulsive to modern Americans? Why is “submission” such a dirty word today?
I think the primary reason is abuse, so before we look at what this passage says submission is, let’s see what it’s not?
