Read Part One HERE
In this post I will continue to look at Bible teacher and author Martha Peace. This time we will look at statements from Chapter Sixteen of her book "The Excellent Wife."
Martha Peace: "A wife should look to the example of Christ's submission to the Father."
Martha Peace: "A wife's true beauty and adornment comes from being submissive to her husband."
Martha Peace: "Biblical submission shows love to God."
Martha Peace: "Biblical submission is a way to show love to her husband."
Martha Peace: "Biblical submission should be viewed through God's sovereignty and goodness."
Martha Peace: "God uses others to put pressure on a wife to be submissive."
Martha Peace: "A wife should train herself to be biblical submissive."
Martha Peace: "A wife will honour God's Word by being submissive to her husband."
Martha Peace: "Biblical submission is one way for a wife to be a "living sacrifice" for the Lord Jesus realising that sometimes she may be suffering for righteousness' sake."
Martha Peace: "A wife should realise that being submissive is a fruit of her salvation."
Martha Peace: "God has made a wife's submission to her husband a manifestation of walking with the Lord, of being in the will of God and being filled with the Holy Spirit."
Martha Peace: "A wife should remind herself of the potential grievous consequences of not being submissive. Some of these consequences may be personal embarrassment, loss of reward at the judgement seat of Christ, Divine discipline, church discipline, disqualification of her husband from the office of elder or deacon."
My Comment
Martha Peace has many things to say with regard submission in this chapter. I will focus on some statements as follows:
She seems to have turned her teaching about a wife's submission into a gospel of works since she teaches the following:
1. Biblical submission is one way for a wife to be a "living sacrifice" for the Lord Jesus realising that sometimes she may be suffering for righteousness' sake.
2. A wife should realise that being submissive is a fruit of her salvation.
3. God has made a wife's submission to her husband a manifestation of walking with the Lord, of being in the will of God and being filled with the Holy Spirit.
4.A wife should remind herself of the potential grievous consequences of not being submissive. Some of these consequences may be...... loss of reward at the judgement seat of Christ, Divine discipline......
However, according to the Scriptures we are saved through the blood of Jesus and not by our works as we know from Ephesians 2:8
For it is by grace that you are saved through faith, not by works.
Moreover, Martha Peace seems to know that for a wife who does not adhere to her (unbiblical) view of submission (read: unquestioning obedience, no matter what the husband may require) there will be severe consequences not just in this life but for eternity affecting her as well as her husband, such as loss of reward at the judgement seat of Christ, Divine discipline, church discipline end even disqualification of her husband from the office of elder or deacon. However, she has not given any biblical proof for these statements. That is, no doubt, because she is not able to do so.
Sadly, Martha Peace does not have a biblical understanding of the word "submission" which makes her teaching very dangerous because it opens the door for abusive husbands to continue their abusive behaviour since their wives have to be submissive/obedient to them even to the point of being "living sacrifices."
However, according to Scripture, the word "submission" is the Greek word "hupotasso" and means "to voluntarily align" oneself with another as we know from Ephesians 5:21-22
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives (submit) to your husbands as to the Lord.
Paul teacher here that as believers are to voluntarily submit to or align themselves with one another, likewise, wives are to voluntarily submit to or align themselves with their husbands who are to sacrificially love their wives. The reason Paul wrote this is because at that time Gentile women, even when married, were still under the authority of their parental households and were still required to worship the idols of their parental households. Paul encouraged these women to separate themselves from their parental households and to voluntarily submit to or align themselves with their husbands, who in turn are to submit to or align themselves with their wives, and so to form a new household under the Lordship of Christ.
Read Part Thirteen HERE
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