Cheryl Schatz

In the New Testament, Christian submission is not based on a submission to authority but a voluntary submission that is based on Christ’s example.

In the culture of that day women were not given a choice whether to submit or not. They were required to submit. But in the Christian setting submission is something that we do out of love not out of necessity.

I am not claiming that men are to submit to women as if women are in authority over men. I am claiming that no one is given authority over others in the body of Christ so that they can demand submission. No one is to take authority over another and the ones who think that they deserve a place of authority are told by Christ to rather take a place of servanthood themselves. There is never a place of commended authority over another person. The Christian position is that of a servant who does his acts of love and service. Men are not exempt from this, in fact they are the ones who are especially told to be servants even of their own wives. This is certainly a position of serving “one another” as the term submission means.