The Four Passages: Why Every 'Submit' Text Includes Slaves
If you want to understand what the Bible really teaches about submission in marriage, you need to look at all four passages that address it. And here's what you'll discover: Every single time Scripture talks about wives submitting to husbands, it also talks about slaves submitting to masters in the exact same context.
Every. Single. Time.
This isn't coincidence. This is Paul and Peter showing us something profound about how God's Kingdom operates within broken human systems.
The Consistent Pattern
Let me walk you through each passage so you can see the pattern for yourself:
Ephesians 5 & 6
Context: Being filled with the Spirit, submitting to one another (Ephesians 5:18-21)
Wives: "Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:22, NIV)
Slaves: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ" (Ephesians 6:5, NIV)
Colossians 3
Context: Letting the word of Christ dwell richly, teaching one another (Colossians 3:16-17)
Wives: "Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord" (Colossians 3:18, NIV)
Slaves: "Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to curry their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord" (Colossians 3:22, NIV)
Titus 2
Context: Qualifications for elders and how they should serve (Titus 1-2)
Wives: "To be self-controlled and pure, to be busy at home, to be kind, and to be subject to their husbands, so that no one will malign the word of God" (Titus 2:5, NIV)
Slaves: "Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them" (Titus 2:9, NIV)
1 Peter 2 & 3
Context: Submitting to human authorities for the Lord's sake (1 Peter 2:13)
Slaves: "Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh" (1 Peter 2:18, NIV) Wives: "Wives, in the same way submit yourselves to your own husbands" (1 Peter 3:1, NIV)
Notice Peter's phrase: "in the same way." In the same way as what? In the same way as he just described slaves operating within an unjust system while maintaining their integrity and witness.
The Context That Changes Everything
In every case, the context is the same:
How believers operate within corrupt human institutions
How to maintain witness and integrity while working for transformation
How to release God's Kingdom into broken systems from the inside out
Paul and Peter aren't endorsing these systems as God's eternal design. They're showing believers how to navigate them while working for change.
The Cultural Reality
We have to understand the cultural context Paul and Peter were writing into. In the first century:
Women were essentially domestic slaves with no legal rights
They couldn't own property, make legal decisions, or even keep wages they earned
Marriage was often an economic transaction where women were transferred from father to husband
Divorce could be initiated by men for almost any reason, leaving women destitute
In this context, telling women to "be subject to their husbands" wasn't about establishing God's ideal for marriage—it was about survival and witness in a hostile culture.
The Revolutionary Undercurrent
But here's what's revolutionary: Both Paul and Peter plant seeds that would eventually undermine these systems entirely.
Paul declares: "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28, NIV). Notice he doesn't say "male or female"—he says "male and female," indicating that the binary distinction itself is transcended in Christ.
Peter calls wives: "heirs with you of the gracious gift of life" (1 Peter 3:7, NIV)—equal inheritors of God's Kingdom, not subordinate helpers.
These weren't small statements. In their cultural context, they were revolutionary bombs that would eventually explode the entire system.
The "Workers at Home" Misunderstanding
Let me address one specific misinterpretation that has caused tremendous harm. In Titus 2:5, many translations say women should be "workers at home" or "keepers at home," and church leaders have used this to say women shouldn't work outside the home.
But the Greek word here is "oikodespotes"—literally "house despot" or "household manager." This was typically a masculine term denoting authority and control over household affairs. When Paul uses it for women, he's actually empowering them within their limited sphere.
Moreover, consider the Proverbs 31 woman who:
Buys and sells real estate (verse 16)
Runs a manufacturing business (verse 24)
Engages in international trade (verse 14)
Employs workers (verse 15)
If God intended women to never work outside the home, why is this entrepreneurial businesswoman held up as the ideal?
The Missionary Strategy
What Paul and Peter are really teaching is missionary strategy. They're showing believers how to live as Kingdom citizens while residing in hostile territory.
Peter makes this explicit: wives should submit "so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives" (1 Peter 3:1, NIV). This is evangelistic strategy, not eternal theology.
Similarly, Paul says slaves should serve well "so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive" (Titus 2:10, NIV). The goal is transformation through witness, not perpetuation of unjust systems.
The Question of Progress
Here's the crucial question: If we've correctly understood that Paul's teachings about slavery were contextual and eventually led to its abolition, why do we continue treating his parallel teachings about wives as timeless commands?
The same hermeneutical principle that freed us from defending slavery should free us from defending hierarchical marriage. Both were accommodations to existing systems while planting seeds of transformation.
The Trajectory of Scripture
When we look at Scripture's overall trajectory, we see movement toward equality and mutual honor:
From multiple wives and concubines in the Old Testament to "one flesh" partnership in the New
From women as property to women as "heirs together of the grace of life"
From rigid hierarchy to "submit to one another out of reverence for Christ"
The Bible is not a flat text where every statement carries equal weight. It's a progressive revelation that moves toward the full expression of God's Kingdom, demonstrated in Christ.
The Same Heart, Different Applications
Paul and Peter had the same heart in both sets of instructions: showing believers how to live faithfully within unjust systems while working for transformation.
For slaves: Don't rebel violently, but serve with such integrity and love that you win your masters to Christ and eventually transform the system.
For wives: Don't rebel against cultural expectations in ways that would harm your witness, but live with such grace and wisdom that you demonstrate God's heart and gradually transform relationships.
Both strategies worked. Slavery was eventually abolished largely due to Christian influence. And now we're seeing the next phase: the transformation of marriage from hierarchy to partnership.
The Uncomfortable Truth
The uncomfortable truth for those who want to maintain traditional gender hierarchies is this: You cannot consistently apply biblical hermeneutics that free slaves while keeping wives in subordinate positions. The same contextual factors that made slavery temporary make hierarchical marriage temporary.
The same Spirit who led the church to recognize slavery as contrary to the Gospel is leading us to recognize that dominance-based marriage is equally contrary to Christ's example of mutual love and service.
Moving Forward
This doesn't mean abandoning Scripture—it means understanding it better. It doesn't mean destroying marriage—it means fulfilling its original purpose as a partnership that reflects God's nature.
When we stop trying to maintain systems that Scripture was actually working to transform, we discover something beautiful: marriages built on mutual submission are stronger, not weaker. Relationships based on partnership rather than hierarchy better reflect the Trinity's perfect unity.
The four passages that have been used to subordinate women are actually the very passages that show us how to transform oppressive systems through the power of Kingdom love. When we read them in context—alongside their teachings about slavery, within their cultural setting, and in light of Scripture's overall trajectory—they become instruments of liberation rather than oppression.
That's the Gospel's power: it meets us where we are but loves us too much to leave us there. It works within existing systems while simultaneously undermining everything in them that contradicts God's heart.
The revolution Jesus started is still happening. And these four passages, properly understood, are part of that revolution—not obstacles to it.
Blessings,
Susan 😊