Whatever submission means it is not a cowering, coerced, fearful act. It is an act of freedom that is fearless because it's

coming from strength which flows from hope in God.

What is the foundation under all relationships? In this episode of Light and Truth, John Piper turns

to 1st Peter 3 versus 1-7 to show the secret to flourishing in difficult relationships.

The sermon was originally preached

at Bethlehem Baptist Church on September 4th, 1994.

Now, it's a great sadness today that the complimentary differences between manhood and womanhood, headship for men in the home and submission for women in the home,

that these things are despised by and large in our culture or if a man or woman doesn't despise them,

they tremble at the thought of mentioning the very words, lest they be called all kinds of ugly names?

That's a great sadness.

Because the Bible is a book of love sent from God to man for our welfare and it does not commend obscenities or ugliness or destruction.

It's a sadness that these things are written off as

first century cultural leftovers that have no relevance for today.

It's a sad thing that they are distorted, abused, and misused.

I had a man in my office one time who actually told me that the meaning of submission is that

his wife should get permission for him to move from one room to the other in the house, including the bathroom.

Well, that's the great evil, which is one of the reasons why the pendulum swings like it does in total rejection or crazy abuses.

The truth does lie between the truth of throwing away this text as the first century left over and that kind of ridiculous

control. And I think this text is beautifully designed to help us find that middle ground of what the relationship is supposed to be.

And let me just show you what I think submission for this wife married to a non-promise

keeper will look like. Just taking it from the text. Let me give you, first of all, six things that submission is not. And this

will help, I hope, clear the air in a significant way so that we don't carry with us the kinds of abuses we may have heard of or

...