Charis

Hi gengwall,

You have misunderstood me. I am not saying a wife’s submission is “voluntary”. I am saying that she IS in subjection (connected?) to her husband. She has no choice. Does your heart “choose” to be in subjection (connected?) to your brain? Upon marriage a husband holds his wife’s heart in his hand. He has a great deal of power to minister LIFE or DEATH to her. Hence the instruction to him in Eph 5 to agapete is in the imperative, while there are no imperatives there directed unilaterally to the wife.

(Note: Col 3:18 has an imperative “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.” but if we select from the range of meanings for hupotasso-‘connection’ and for anako/”fit”-“connect”, the verse would be rendered “Wives be connected to your husbands as you are connected in the Lord”)