Equal Submission, A Better Biblical Model
by Phil Strickland

Editor’s Note: The following is a statement made to the press on Nov. 9 in Houston by Phil Strickland, Director of Christian Life Commission of the BGCT.

There are many Baptists who strongly disagree with the SBC statement calling for male authority over their wives. I believe the Biblical model is for wives and husbands to be mutually submissive to one another.

The continuing attempt to establish a chain of command in the marriage relationship fails to reflect the full witness of scripture.

The Biblical norm in wife-husband relationships is mutual submission. The Ephesians passage which calls for women to be subject to their husbands (Eph. 5:21- 33) also calls for husbands to be subject to their wives (“submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God”). The passage teaches that women should “respect” or “reverence” their husbands. But then the passage calls for husbands to “love their wives, even as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for the Church.” Christ submitted to death for the Church, so husbands are called to like submission for their wives. Paul concludes his teaching with the statement that men are to “love their wives as they love themselves (verse 28).

First Peter echoes the Ephesians passage: “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility, for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble” (I Peter 5:5).

The Biblical ideal for marriage is a relationship based on Christian love, not on secular power. Genuine Christian love is that love embodied in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, which is clearly servant love. “This is my commandment, that you love one another, as I have loved you.” (John 15:12). The deepest call to people in the marriage relationship is to love each other with nothing less than the love of Christ. The Bible is most emphatic about the husband’s responsibility to relate out of love.

The Bible teaches that we are one in Christ. Paul said, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are one in Jesus Christ.” (Gal. 3:28).

In Christ, gender is not an issue. The Bible teaches full equality of men and women. Women receive gifts from Christ just as do men. All human beings are equally made in the image and likeness of God and are called to care for and develop God’s creation. (Gen. 1:26-28). Christ came to equally redeem both.

Through faith in Christ we all become children of God and one in Christ and heirs of salvation regardless of our race or gender. Fellowship in the Body of Christ, which includes Christian marriage, is based on the interdependent mutual servanthood of all members (Gal. 5:13, I Peter 5:5). Loving partnership is the Biblical pattern.

We are all, female and male, priests before God. The New Testament interjects no hierarchy into this priesthood. Women are not given semi-priest status subject to their husbands. To claim that the woman is subject to her husband’s spiritual authority in a “chain of command” is an attempt to assert male dominance and authority in direct conflict with scriptural teaching. We are all responsible directly to God.

The Bible contains numerous stories of women who were blessed because they chose God’s leadership in opposition to men’s leadership. Esther and Abigail immediately come to mind, along with numerous others.

Like men, women are responsible first to God. Women are called to do God’s work, whether it be assuming leadership (Miriam, Deborah), conducting business activities (Lydia), praying and prophesying (I Cor. 11:5; Acts 21:9), providing leadership (Junius, Romans 16:7), and providing instruction (Priscilla, Acts 21:9).

The attempt to make women subject to God’s authority through the agency of male control is to listen to the world instead of the Biblical witness of mutual interdependence and love.

December 1998/January 1999