Finally, by being filled in our spirit with the Spirit and by allowing the word of Christ to dwell in us richly, we are subject to one another in the fear of Christ to live a proper human life. Ephesians 5:21 says, “Being subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” Being subject to one another is also the overflow of being filled in spirit. Our subjection should be one to another, not only the younger ones to the older ones but also the older ones to the younger ones (1 Pet. 5:5).
We are to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. According to the context, to be in the fear of Christ is to fear offending Him as the Head. This is related to Christ’s headship (Eph. 5:23) and involves our subjection one to another. Christ is the Head of the Body. If we mistreat any member of the Body, we offend the Head of the Body. We need to keep the relationship with the members of the Body in the fear of the Head.
The life of being filled in spirit and of speaking, singing, psalming, and thanking is a life of subjection. When we speak, sing, psalm, and give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we are willing to submit ourselves to one another. We all submit to Christ the Head and also to the Body. This submitting comes from the speaking, the singing, the psalming, and the giving of thanks, which in turn come from the infilling. When we are filled in our spirit, we sing, we psalm, we speak, and we thank. Spontaneously, we also submit. However, if we are not filled, there will be no speaking, singing, psalming, or thanking God, and consequently there will be no submitting. The proper church people are those who are submissive by speaking, singing, psalming, and giving thanks to God from their inner being. They live in the way of being filled in spirit with all the riches of Christ unto the fullness of God.
We are subject to one another in the fear of Christ to live a proper human life. God desires that Christ be expressed through human life. We see this in Colossians 3:18-4:1, a sister passage to Ephesians 5:22-6:9, regarding the believers’ ethical relationships. In Ephesians the emphasis is on the need of spirit-filled ethical relationships for the expression of the Body in the normal church life. In Colossians the emphasis is that we should hold Christ as our Head and take Him as our life by having His rich word dwelling in us, that the highest ethical relationships, issuing not from our natural life but from Christ as our life, may be realized for His expression.
Christ is to be expressed in the human life, not in the angelic life. Angels cannot express Christ. The Father has ordained that we, His chosen ones, be the expression of His Son. If we live in union with Christ, allowing the word of Christ to saturate us, Christ will be expressed through our humanity. Therefore, the living of the believers in union with Christ results in the expression of Christ in human life. If we realize this, we shall praise the Lord for our human living. In the relationships between wife and husband, between children and parents, and between masters and slaves, we need to express Christ by being filled in our spirit with the Spirit and by being saturated with the word of Christ.
The relationship between wives and husbands is connected to the matter of being filled in spirit and saturated with the word of Christ. It is an aspect of the daily living of those who are filled in spirit unto all the fullness of God. Therefore, when we speak about the relationship between wives and husbands, we should not neglect the infilling. Only by being filled in our spirit can we have a proper married life.
In Ephesians 5:22 Paul says, “Wives, be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord.” Concerning this, Colossians 3:18 says, “The wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.” The wives are to be subject to their own husbands. Because most wives appreciate and respect others’ husbands, Paul exhorts the wives to be subject to their own husbands, no matter what kind of husbands they have.
According to Paul’s word in Ephesians 5:22, wives are to be subject to their own husbands “as to the Lord.” The wives need to realize that in the eyes of the Lord the husband represents the Lord. The reason the wife must submit to her own husband is that in married life he is as the Lord. As Christ is the Head of the church and the Savior of the Body, wives must be subject to their husbands as to the Lord.
Wives must also take their husbands as the head. Ephesians 5:23 says, “For a husband is head of the wife as also Christ is Head of the church, being Himself the Savior of the Body.” As head of the wife, a husband typifies Christ as the Head of the church. The Savior is a matter of love, whereas the Head is a matter of authority. We love Christ as our Savior, but we must also be subject to Him as our Head. It ought to be the same in the relationship between wives and husbands.
In verse 24 Paul continues, “As the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives to their husbands in everything.” The thought here is this: although husbands are not the savior of their wives as Christ is of the church, the wives still need to be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ.
Home | First | Prev | Next