We're totally equal....except I'm the boss!

[jenny_islander]

I wish Burris would respond to this. She is a Christian, yes? I would like a non-fundamental definition of submission. I have tried google, but all I find is fundie doublespeak and circular thinking.

Not Burris, but I'll tackle it.

Those of us in the wish-washy mainstream who think that context isn't a dirty word note that the verse about submission comes in the middle of a long passage in which Paul talks about how we are to live as Christians. After a discussion of what Christians are not allowed to make a Christian do in order to be the right kind of Christian (Colossians 2--do fundamentalists ever read this bit, I wonder?), Paul passes on to what Christians ought to do because they are Christian (Colossians 3). The first half of this chapter is general directions for all Christians regardless of background (v.11). Be compassionate, be kind, be lowly, be meek, be patient, be forbearing, be forgiving, be loving, let the rule in your hearts be peace, be thankful, teach one another, sing praises, do everything in the name of Jesus. Paul gets down to specifics beginning in verse 18. Check it out at Bible Gateway or the Blue Letter Bible. Here's my paraphrase:

Wives, put yourselves under the authority of your husbands as far as it fits with your life as a Christian. Husbands, love your wives and don't be jerks. Children, obey your parents because this pleases God. Fathers, do not give your children reasons to be angry at you or they are going to give up. Servants, don't do a half-assed job and rely on boss programs and licks and promises; if you are given work to do, do it well. And whatever you do, do it as if for Jesus Himself, and not for ordinary people, knowing that you all serve Christ and from Christ your inheritance comes.

All too often, the only parts that get read from this passage are that wives are to submit to husband and children are to obey parents, no modifiers allowed. But turning back to Colossians 2, what are all Christians told to avoid? What do people not have to do no matter who tells them that they have to do it in order to be the right kind of Christian? My paraphrase of Col. 2: 16-23:

Don't let anybody tell you you're eating the wrong thing or drinking the wrong thing or worshiping or not worshiping on the wrong days. These are just shadows; Jesus is the reality. Don't let people confuse you by telling you that you have to put yourself down or worship angels or believe his personal visions or whatever, pretending some system he made up in his own head is the command of Jesus when Jesus is our head and the only thing that holds the body of Christ together. If you died out of the world through Christ and rose beyond the world with Christ, then why do you worry about what you touch or taste or handle and the other commandments set up by human beings? They make you look good, sure, but if you are really looking for self-control, they won't help.

The only thing that gets quoted from here is the not worshipping angels part, which generally starts a long rant about Catholics and their idolatrous ways. But whatever submission from a wife is, it isn't putting oneself down. It isn't following a system of "do this and be right with God" shalts and shalt nots. It isn't obeying somebody else's visions either--I'm looking at you, Branham.