09/10/2026
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday September 19, 2026
www.wenstrom.org
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:21b-The Basis for Believers Voluntarily Subordinating Themselves to One Another
Lesson # 372
Ephesians 5:15 Therefore, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of paying careful attention to the manner in which each and every one of you make it your habit of conducting your lives. Each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to not make it your habit of conducting your lives in an unwise manner. On the contrary, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives in a wise manner 16 by continuing to make it your habit of taking full advantage of your opportunity for your own benefit because these days are characterized by evil. 17 For this reason, each and every one of must continue to make it your habit of not conducting your lives as foolish individuals. On the contrary, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of conducting your lives as wise individuals by comprehending for the purpose of personal application what constitutes the Lord’s will (for the manner in which each one of you as a corporate unit are to continue making it your habit of conducting your life). 18 Consequently, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of not permitting yourselves to be drunk by means of the excessive intake of w**e because this is non-sensical behavior. On the contrary, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it your habit of permitting yourselves to be influenced by means of the Spirit’s teaching 19 with result that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of communicating with one another by means of psalms, hymns as well as spiritual songs so that each and every one of you as a corporate unit continue to make it your habit of singing and specifically continuing to make it your habit of making music with your hearts for the benefit of the Lord. 20 This also results in each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit of always expressing thanks to the one and only God, namely the Father because of each and every circumstance on the basis of the merits of the name possessed by the Lord ruling over each and every one of us as a corporate unit. 21 Furthermore, this results in each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit voluntarily subordinating yourselves to one another based upon reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love of Christ on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:21 is composed of the following:
(1) Participial result clause: Hypotassomenoi allēlois (Ὑποτασσόμενοι ἀλλήλοις), “Furthermore, this results in each and every one of you as a corporate unit continuing to make it your habit voluntarily subordinating yourselves to one another” (Lecturer’s translation)
(2) prepositional phrase: en phobō Christou (ἐν φόβῳ Χριστοῦ), “based upon reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love of Christ on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit.” (Lecturer’s translation)
So therefore, Ephesians 5:21 is composed of a result clause, which asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of this letter, continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another.
This result clause is modified by a prepositional phrase, which presents the reason for this result clause.
It asserts that this voluntary subordination of oneself to one’s fellow believer is based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
So therefore, the participial result clause in Ephesians 5:21 asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of this letter, continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
The term Christos (Χριστός) contains the figure of metonymy, which means that the person of Christ is put for His divine love, which caused Him to become a human being in order to serve not only the members of His church but all of sinful mankind.
His love caused Him to become a human being in order to live the life of perfect obedience to the Father and to suffer the consequences of the sins committed by members of sinful humanity, namely, the wrath or righteous indignation of God.
Therefore, this figure indicates that the person of Jesus Christ is put for the self-sacrificial love He demonstrated on the cross on behalf of the entire Christian community by suffering the wrath of God so that they would not have to experience this wrath forever in the lake of fire.
The noun phobos (φόβος) refers to the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia expressing their “reverential respect” for the self-sacrificial love of the Lord Jesus Christ by voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another by ministering to each other as a result of permitting themselves to be influenced by the Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching.
This word is the object of the preposition en (ἐν), which functions as a marker of cause, which indicates the basis or the reason why the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia were to continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another by self-sacrificially serving one another.
Therefore, they were to continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another by serving one another “because of” or “on the basis of” their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ manifested on behalf of each one of them at the cross and as a result serve each one of them.
The term Christos (Χριστός) functions as an objective genitive, which indicates that the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated on the cross for the Christian community receives the action of being reverentially respected by the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
This respect for the Lord’s service to them would manifest itself by continuing to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another by self-sacrificially serving one another.
This self-sacrificial service would be the result obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to self-sacrificially love one another as He has self-sacrificially love each of them at the cross.
Notice what Paul is teaching the recipients of this letter that when they subordinate themselves to one another on the basis of their reverence and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ, they were in fact worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ since reverence and respect are two of four words which characterize Christian worship.
There are four English words, “reverence,” “respect,” “awe,” and “wonder,” which express the concept of worshipping God.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “reverence”: “A feeling or attitude of deep respect tinged with awe; veneration.”
Therefore, paraphrasing this definition, we would say that when the believer is subordinating themselves to their fellow believer on the basis of their reverence and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ and specifically, His self-sacrificial act of love for them at the cross, they are in fact worshipping the Lord Jesus Christ in the sense that they possess an attitude of deep respect and awe for Him.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “respect”: “esteem for or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person, a personal quality or trait, or something considered as a manifestation of a personal quality or trait.”
Thus, when the believer is subordinating themselves to their fellow believer on the basis of their reverence and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificial act of love for them at the cross, they are in effect esteeming the excellence of His unique Person as manifested through His personal qualities or attributes such as love, faithfulness, mercy, compassion, justice, righteousness, truth, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, immutability, and sovereignty.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “awe”: “an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration, fear, etc. produced by that which is grand, sublime, extremely powerful or the like.”
Thus, when the believer is subordinating themselves to their fellow believer on the basis of their reverence and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificial act of love for them at the cross, they are possessing an overwhelming feeling of reverence, admiration for the Lord.
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary defines the noun “wonder”: “to be filled with admiration, amazement or awe; marvel.”
The Christian’s should be filled with admiration, amazement and awe in response to who the Lord is as the God-Man and what He did for them through His crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection and session at the right hand of the Father.
Warren Wiersbe writes, “True wonder reaches right into your heart and mind and shakes you up. It not only has depth, it has value; it enriches your life. Wonder is not cheap amusement that brings a smile to your face. It is an encounter with reality, with God, which brings awe to your heart. You’re overwhelmed with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear-and love. You’re not looking for explanations; you’re lost in the wonder of God.”
Therefore, paraphrasing this comment by Wiersbe on wonder we would say that the Spirit’s revelation in the Scriptures concerning the Lord Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificial act of love for the members of the Christian community at the cross should reach right into the Christian’s heart and shake them up and enrich their lives.
It should overwhelm them with an emotion that is a mixture of gratitude, adoration, reverence, fear and love for the Lord.
The Christian shouldn’t be looking for explanations but rather they should be lost in the wonder of the person and work of Christ at the cross.
Therefore, the Christian should approach the Lord Jesus Christ to worship Him by manifesting an attitude of deep reverence, respect and awe for Him for who and what He is and what He has done for them as their Creator-Redeemer.
Warren Wiersbe defines worship, “Worship is the believer’s response of all that they are –mind, emotions, will and body-to what God is and says and does. This response has its mystical side in subjective experience and its practical side in objective obedience to God’s revealed will. Worship is a loving response that’s balanced by the fear of the Lord, and it is a deepening response as the believer comes to know God better.”
If we paraphrase Wiersbe’s definition, we could say the following: When the believer is subordinating themselves to their fellow believer on the basis of their reverence and respect for the Lord Jesus Christ’s self-sacrificial act of love for them at the cross, they are responding in their mind, emotion, and body to the Spirit’s revelation in the Word of God concerning the Lord’s self-sacrificial act of love for them at the cross.
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