Summary Of Sarah Sumner's Men And Women In The Church

I deeply appreciate Sarah Sumner’s book on the topic of Men and Women in the church and her important, theological insights. My understanding of this topic was stretched, encouraged, and challenged as I learned from her. To follow are summaries of the key topic areas she addresses.

Headship

Sumner’s view of headship is different from both complementarians and egalitarians. As she points out from 1 Corinthians 11:3, the Greek word ‘kephale’ to complementarians means ‘authority’, while to egalitarians it means ‘source’. But Sumner’s view is that it means neither. As found from research completed by Wayne Grudem on the use of the word ‘kephale’ in ancient Greek literature, the culture did not use the word ‘kephale’ refer to ‘source’ and

That men and women are not as an egalitarian’s perspective that highlights equality, nor a complementarian’s perspective that highlights distinction. But both equal and distinct, in mystery as a biblical paradox. When we don’t practice this, the biblical paradox that God intended in His design is lost.

Submission

Submission is another area where Sumner has a new perspective. In Ephesians 5:22, Paul addresses wives to be submissive to their husbands. Only wives in scripture are advised to be submissive. Sumner advises that scripture does not say husbands are told to lead their wives as a complementarian view says, nor does scripture say there is mutual submission which egalitarian view says. Sumner advises instead that there are three couplets presented in Ephesians 5:22-33 which are as follows:

“1. The wife is to be subject to her own husband in everything, and he is to sacrifice himself for her. The dynamic is for her to submit and him to sacrifice; thus the first couplet is submission/sacrifice. 2. The wife is the body, and the husband is the head. Together they form one flesh. The second couplet, then, is body/head. 3. The wife is commanded to respect her husband while the husband is commanded to love her. As you can see, the third couplet is respect/love.” (Sumner

When the husband leads himself to sacrifice for his wife, is displays what Christ did for us. For in John 10:18, Christ voluntarily sacrifices His life for us. As the husband and wife are united as one body, the husband leads himself to exercise his will to sacrifice for his wife, and she is to lead herself to exercise her will to submit to her husband. Sumner describes submission meaning “coming under her husband in order to lift him up in everything.” (Sumner 171). The husband’s sacrifice and the wife’s submission work together in one body supporting each other, lifting each other up to betterment of the other, which thereby strengthens and enables both rather than working against each other for