Mutual Respect

DEVOTION

THE LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS

MUTUAL RESPECT

Eph 5:21-24

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 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. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

NIV

This seems a bit contradictory. First Paul tells us to submit to one another and then that wives are to submit to their husbands. Which is it? It cannot be both, can it? What various translations do with this verse makes some difference. Because there are no punctuations in Greek, this verse is most likely the remaining or concluding thought about living very carefully, which we should have included in examining that truth. If we just add it to the last portion of the teaching about living very carefully it makes sense.

Eph 5:19-21

19 Speak to one another with psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. 21 Submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

NIV  

But in order to make perfect sense of it, we need to see how the wording in Greek expressing it. Submitting yourselves mutually out of the fear of God, or Christ as the Greek word is Christou. There is mutual respect we need to have for one another, which implies we should not think more highly of ourselves in respect to others then we should. That is to say, none of us are any better than other of us in relationship with the Lord. He does not show favoritism. He loves each one of us exactly the same and therefore we should see all of us as exactly the same or as equals, having a mutual submission to God. In this way, this command is not in contrast to how the individual family structure was established by God. So as we get into this family structure section, we have to tread very lightly, as in our culture today it seems this is not the most popular message. Because of the recent Cultural Revolution in our country over the past sixty-plus years, which actually had its roots in World War II, it appears the role of women has drastically changed in our society. The question is whether that is a good thing in the eyes of God, or it is just a good thing in the eyes of man. We are going to have to weigh in on the topic of family structure based on the view of God rather than the opinion of man, but we will wait until tomorrow as in contemplating on this, it would be best to deal with the whole family at the same time, not just wives one day and husbands the next and lastly children. But then we will go on to employee/employer relationships. Now let us simply ponder on this truth of mutual respect out of reverence for Christ. If we are living with this mutual respect then we would not do harm to each other as well as we would not have hurt feelings, or ill-feelings of any kind, as that would be because of thinking more highly of ourselves as we should. Let us make more of an effort to live with this mutual respect.