Submission is a concept that is distorted by every
abuser. “Submit!” is the command,
whether it is voiced or not. By “submit” an abuser demands instant obedience—no
matter what. Submit to rape, a physical
beating, or non-respectful verbal assaults.
Submit to accepting attacks of any kind such as blatant o subtle boundary
violations, impossible demands, harsh judgments, and false accusations. When
living with an abuser you discover that submitting also seems to require all
sorts of slippery details like always be wrong, except when the abuser suddenly
wants you to give a correct answer; never notice when the abuser is lying to
you, except if he or she is testing you; always be controlled by him or her,
accept when he or she suddenly becomes disgusted with your passivity; and perhaps
above all else, always trust that your abuser loves you and is taking excellent
care of you.
Submission is a word used in the Bible, presumed in
our laws and practiced worldwide in human relationships. So what does
submission really mean? According to the
dictionary, we submit when we yield ourselves to the power or authority of
another. We
are expected to submit to public authority figures for the good of society as a
whole. In our public lives, there are provisions for what to do if an authority
figure is not behaving in an ethical or legal manner. We can call authority
figures into account and hold them accountable to certain standards of conduct.
In abusive relationships, however, the
abuser holds himself above any accountability and freely enforces his reign by
frightening, coercing and controlling others to get whatever he wants. It took
me a long time to realize that what an abuser says he wants, and what he
actually wants may be quite different. He might say he just wants to help you be a
better person, but what he really wants is to erode away your self-esteem so
that he can have more power over you. He might say he didn’t mean to harm you,
he may actually mean that he doesn’t want you to take any legal actions against
him. He might tell you that he just wishes you would behave correctly so that
he doesn’t have to keep trying to teach you, in reality he wants you to lose
all confidence in yourself and depend on him for all your perceptions. He wants
you to learn to disregard what your five senses tell you. He wants you to
believe him when he tells you your actions are wrong, your thoughts are wrong
and your feelings are wrong. Another abuser may say very little, but still makes
sure you get the message that he is right and you are wrong, he has
all the power and you are powerless, he can control you in everything and you
can’t control him in anything. He can find many creative ways to enforce
unchecked power and control over you—until you submit to anything, no matter how immoral or unjust his demand is.
It has been part of my healing process
to realize that I do not need to submit to abusive behavior ever again. I do
not need to obey unethical demands, I do not need to accept harsh treatment as
my due, I do not need to agree with the abuser that he can do whatever he
wishes without any negative consequences. As a grown-up, I have choices. I can
confront or leave when other adults are behaving badly, I no longer have to
keep silent about another’s wrong actions, and I don’t have to blame myself
when another takes unwarranted liberties.
My understanding of scriptural
guidelines on marriage has also changed as I have healed. An often-quoted scripture is Ephesians 5: 21: “Wives submit
to your husbands as to the Lord.” The way I formerly understood this verse
reinforced my passivity and led to me becoming a “doormat,” accepting violent and demeaning
behavior as something I could do nothing about.
With God’s patience and help I have learned to read this verse in its
full context. Ephesians 5:19 instructs all believers to “Speak to one another
with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,” indicating that we speak Biblical
truth and encouragement to one another. Colossians 3:16 amplifies on this, “Let
word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with
all wisdom.” Neither verse describes a relationship that is one-sided, with
one person controlling the other.
Photo by Seemann, morguefile.com |
God cares about our motives behind our
behavior as well. Why we're submitting matters. Ephesians 5:21 instructs, “Submit to one another out of reverence
for Christ.” All Christians should be willing to subordinate their rights out of their respect for God. In Ephesians 4:2, the motives we
are to act from are spelled out clearly: “be completely humble and gentle; be patient,
bearing with one another in love.” God helped me to realize that there wasn't anything loving about letting another person act in immoral ways against me.
Paul urges a wife to submit to her husband (Ephesians 5:22-24) to allow her husband to function as the head of the family. I’ve learned over the years that God does not mean by these verses that wives are to submit because they are inferior to their husbands in intelligence or understanding. When I was married to an abusive spouse, I too frightened and insecure to be a full partner. This was the way the abuser desired things to be, and I did my best to believe that I was obeying and honoring God with my lack of assertiveness. In truth, my silence was actually motivated mostly by fear of what my husband would do to me if I disobeyed or expressed my opinion or made a direct request. I’ve discovered that the more closely I walk with God, the less I am driven by fear and the more I am empowered by the Holy Spirit to share with my husband my observations, my reasoning, my needs, and my feelings. I now see it as my responsibility to continue being an active participant and partner with submission meaning that if we are not on agreement on a non-moral issue, I can set aside what I want as an act of love and humbleness.
Paul urges a wife to submit to her husband (Ephesians 5:22-24) to allow her husband to function as the head of the family. I’ve learned over the years that God does not mean by these verses that wives are to submit because they are inferior to their husbands in intelligence or understanding. When I was married to an abusive spouse, I too frightened and insecure to be a full partner. This was the way the abuser desired things to be, and I did my best to believe that I was obeying and honoring God with my lack of assertiveness. In truth, my silence was actually motivated mostly by fear of what my husband would do to me if I disobeyed or expressed my opinion or made a direct request. I’ve discovered that the more closely I walk with God, the less I am driven by fear and the more I am empowered by the Holy Spirit to share with my husband my observations, my reasoning, my needs, and my feelings. I now see it as my responsibility to continue being an active participant and partner with submission meaning that if we are not on agreement on a non-moral issue, I can set aside what I want as an act of love and humbleness.
God’s Word also demonstrates that there are times to act in accordance with our individual
knowledge of God --times when it would be wrong to submit. In the Old
Testament (1 Sam 25), Abigail‘s husband, Nabal, is described as wealthy and “surly and
mean in his dealings.” David’s men give protection to his sheep shearers and
Nabal refuses to re-pay the kindness in the customary way. Abigail behaved righteously when she took
action as an individual (not in accordance with her husband) to honor God and
David by bringing an appropriate offering of food and urging David to resist
his first impulse to punish her household for her husband’s foolish wickedness--and
to instead honor God by extending mercy. David and God were both pleased with
Abigail’s humble, righteous actions and words. God put to death her violent
husband and when David learned of this he married her, knowing by experience
that she was an intelligent and righteous wife. In the New Testament (Acts 5),
we learn of another wife, Sapphira, facing the problem of being yoked to a
dishonest husband. Her husband, Ananias, told her he was going to lie to the church
and to God about the sale price of his land so that he could avoid sharing the whole amount and secretly keep a share of the profit for his own use. Three
hours later, Sapphira was summoned and asked if she confirmed her husband’s
truthfulness, she backed up her husband’s lies, and as a result God struck her
dead. Clearly, God doesn’t want us to lie for our spouse or passively go along
with it when our husbands do something that is clearly wrong.
Submission does not involve sinning to
pacify our spouse. Submission isn’t Godly if it is motivated by our fear of
being abused. Submission isn’t honoring to God if we wait to see what might
happen when we already know what righteous action and words need to take place.
God doesn’t want wives to lie for their husbands. Submitting to violent or immoral acts in the name of being a “good
submissive wife” isn’t the kind of submission the Bible writers were speaking
of. God doesn’t expect
women to submit to sexual, verbal or physical abuse from her husband. He urges
husbands to love their wives as well as they love themselves and to treat their
wives with respect and kindness (Ephesians 5). The submission the Bible speaks
of is about respectful, loving behavior.
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