We are discussing marriage by examining the recent book of John Piper’s called This Momentary Marriage: A Parable of Permanence.

What then about this “submissiveness” that is so emphatic in Piper’s complementarian approach to reading the roles of husbands and wives?

Piper begins with 1 Peter 3 and finds four characteristics of biblical women: they hope in God, they are fearless about the future, they have an inner adornment, and they are submissive.

What submission is not according to Piper:

1. It does not mean agreeing with everything yoru husband says.
2. It does not mean leaving your brain or your will at the wedding altar.
3. It does not mean avoiding every effort to change a husband.
4. It does not mean putting the will of a husband before the will of Christ. “Submission to Jesus relativizes submission to husbands” (100).
5. It does not mean that a wife gets her personal, spiritual strength through her husband.
6. It does not mean she is to act out of fear.

What is it?

It is to honor and affirm her husband’s leadership and help carry it through according to her gifts. “It’s the disposition to follow a husband’s authority [new word so far as I can see], and an inclination to yield to his leadership” (101).