Seed Planters & Church Penal Codes
another look at Ephesians 5:21-24
Holy Smokes! Something just clicked, and I must tell you about it! You know how I’ve been studying this topic of gender in the Bible? Scripture is making way more sense to me now. However, Ephesians 5:21-24 had me stumped.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. In other places where Paul tells wives to submit to their husbands, he explains why. It’s to learn corrective doctrine or ensure an orderly worship service or to present the gospel to the surrounding culture in a good light or set up a system in which women might learn.
But Ephesians’ explanation for why wives ought to submit is this:
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. (Eph. 5:21-24 NIV)
Paul’s explanation is simply that the husband is the head of the wife. What does being the head have to do with submission? If head means authority, it makes total sense. But since reading Cynthia Westfall’s book, Paul and Gender, I’ve seen how “head” probably didn’t mean “authority” in koine Greek but “source” or “origin of.” However, plugging in this definition in Ephesians 5, doesn’t make much sense. Why would a wife submit to her husband because he’s the origin of the family? What does that have to do with anything?
But my recent blogging put the pieces into place. Here’s how it’s making more sense to me now. And here are those blog posts and the chapter summary from Westfall’s book for reference.
Fleshly and Heavenly Heads
So, another way that people in ancient times might say that men are the origin of their family is to say that men plant the seeds that create their family. New babies are made when a man sows seeds in the woman. In this, men are the head. Head was another way of saying the origin or source of the family’s seeds. In those days, they even believed men’s sperm came from men’s heads. This is a physical description of how people make families of the flesh. At least, that’s how I understand it at this point.
Likewise, Christ was the first seed-planter, sowing sons and daughters of God. Christ plants us as seeds to grow new life in Christ. Several parables in Matthew describe Christ doing this: the parable of the four soils, the parable of the weeds, and the parable of the mustard seed.
Do you see how this makes so much sense in Ephesians 5? The parallels are amazing! When men plant their sperm-seed in the woman, a baby grows inside the woman. When a teacher plants God’s word-seed in us, the kingdom of Heaven begins to grow inside us. We begin the process of being reborn!
When women are ready to give birth to babies, they have labor pains. As God’s Word grows inside us, we experience suffering because of the wickedness on earth as we wait for the time of our adoption as sons and daughters of God. In fact, the closer we get to being reborn, the more our suffering grows as the wickedness of the world weighs more and more heavily upon us. (See 2 Peter 2:7-9 and Romans 8:22)
What Did That Mean For the Ephesians?
So let’s apply that to the Ephesian’s situation. Wives submit to your husbands because husbands are the head (or seed planters) of the wife. Did you catch that? It’s a play on words! At that time, husbands were seed planters to their wives in two different ways. They were the sperm-seed planters to make babies, and they, like Christ, served as the primary teachers of correct doctrine to their wives. In this, men were like Christ the head. Men passed on the Word of God to their wives. This was how women in that day were able to learn correct doctrine from reliable sources and how they got their questions answered.
Paul is explaining to the women how they could be educated about God’s word. At that time women couldn’t necessarily read a Bible or get an education. Thus, the best way for women to learn was through their husbands who received correct doctrine through Paul or an apostle or faithful witness. Paul even tells wives to hold all their questions for their husbands until after the worship service in 1 Corinthians 14:35. Apparently, the women more than the men in Corinth had questions and didn’t know how to get them answered.
Thus, Paul’s directions here are using the metaphor of head to explain how women get the Word of God planted in them. That is by submitting to the teaching of their husbands. Amazing! Isn’t it?
I think Paul’s directions to husbands could also be used by parents, teachers, and leaders in the church. After all, if we follow Christ, we are called to pass along the word of God to others not just by teaching them, but by loving others like Christ loved us by giving ourselves up for others so that those we share God’s word with might be cleansed, washed, and presented to Christ without blemish.
Transcendent Truths: What that Has To Teach Us
So what are the transcendent truths here? I picked out three.
First, we see truths about teacher/student relationships. Students need to submit to their teachers in order to learn the right teaching, and teachers need to be gentle and loving to their students. Christ calls himself a gentle, humble teacher in Matthew 11:29. And Proverbs is chock-full of word pictures describing how a son ought to submissively learn from his mother and father’s teachings in order to be wise.
Second, we see a transcendent truth about how men and women are defined. That is, men have the capacity to plant sperm, and women have the capacity to receive the sperm. That is just how God designed our bodies.
Third, Paul tells us what a planter of God’s word is aiming to do. This could be applied to parents or overseers in the church. We are called to pass along the word of God to others not just by teaching it, but by loving others like Christ does His church. We are to give ourselves up sacrificially for others so that they might be cleansed, washed, and presented to Christ without blemish.
Violation of Article 483
I realize applying scripture like this might seem like a violation of Church Penal Code, Article 483. “You can’t take Paul’s advice for husbands and say it’s for parents or any old teacher! How dare you!”
But we do this with other parts of scripture quite frequently. We change the subjects and circumstances to fit our twenty-first-century scenarios. In fact, if you’re a women, you do this all the time with scripture, since most of scripture seems to be speaking to men. I don’t think this is against God’s design. We’re not changing sperm-sowers into sperm-receivers, we’re talking about passing along God’s word to others. Scripture uses metaphors, stories, and case-scenarios, to describe the Christ-life so that we might learn and grow in our time and circumstances.
Here are some other examples of how we do this with scripture:
Romans 14: don’t despise the weaker brother. We use this quite often in circumstances that have nothing to do with brothers or food sacrificed to idols.
The story of Mary and Martha: this isn’t just a story for women. It could also be used to teach men how to value people instead of managing people.
Matthew 5:41: go the extra mile. Jesus is actually talking about walking here, but we use this in various circumstances.
2 Corinthians 1:12: “What I mean is that each one of you says, ‘I follow Paul,’ or ‘I follow Apollos,’ or ‘I follow Cephas,’ or ‘I follow Christ.’” People could use this to refer to people taking sides about what teachers we follow or political movements we trust or religious trends we buy into. “I follow Abby Stevens’ blog,” or “I voted for Trump,” or “I don’t like it when so-and-so preaches.”
Ephesians 6 gives directions to masters and bond servants. We use these verses to apply to employees and their bosses regardless of gender.
1 Timothy 4:12 tells Timothy not to let people despise him because of his age. We use this all the time, both men and women.
Many other examples exist, but you’ll have to find them yourself because it’s time for me to end this blog and pick up my son from school. (It’s 2:15 pm as I write this.) Hope this post was enlightening!
To read more on this topic, click the links below.
Yes! Very good!