For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of His wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of His body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
Ephesians 5:22-24
As I told you in the last Gem, after Paul tells the Ephesian church to submit to one another as part of the evidence for the filling of the Spirit he then divides what he says to wives and then to husbands. To the one he says submit, to the other he says love. Remember too that overall Paul is passing on the message to them that the will of God is that they all be submitted under the headship of Christ. When a husband is truly submitted to Christ a wife will have no problem in submitting to him. But it just doesn’t seem fair that Paul says “wives submit” and “husbands love”. Read Gems 369 and 481. In both of those I address the issue of submission.
In Gem 369 I said “Yes indeed Paul wrote in Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.” And the a few verses later “husband, love your wives as Christ loved the church.” Oh the imbalance of it. Wives to submit and husbands to love. See Ian, there is another example of Paul fixated on the submission of woman. No, you are reading it wrong. But I won’t lead you into reading it right until we tackle Ephesians in Gems. Here is a challenge for you. Tackle this passage of Ephesians for yourself and see what you can make of it.”
Have you done that? I suspect not. And besides, some of you have just joined me in following Bible Gems and haven’t got the instruction to work it out for yourself. So now here is the opportunity. Have a look at the passage on submission and do all you know to do with it. Think too about the seeming imbalance of what Paul says – wives submit; husbands love.
Have a look for yourself at the word “submit” and also compare the segments for wives and for husbands.
For wives: this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of His wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of His body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
Ephesians 5:22-24
- For husbands: this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up His life for her
- to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.
- He did this to present her to Himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault.
- In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself.
- No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
- Both of these units are set in the overall context of “being submitted to one another out of reverence for Christ”.
- “And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.” NLT
The Greek reads as follows:
Υποτασσόμενοι ἀλλήλοις ἐν φόβῳ Χριστοῦ.
Submitting {to one another} in fear {of Christ}
My point in showing you the Greek is so you will see there is no “and further” at all. It just says “Submitting to one another in fear of Christ”. The “and further” has been added by the translators to “connect it”. This is like < new thought >. New logical connection? NO, same listing to go with all the other present participles strung from be filled with the Spirit. You show you are filled with the filled by being submitted. Wow that’s a new thought. It is all connected. You don’t need a new connection here. It is not like Paul has moved on to the issue of women being submitted. He is still on about showing you are filled with the Spirit and of course setting this segment in the midst of the over arching will of God (Eph 1:9-10).
Now time for you to ponder. This gem is already long enough. More in the next Gem after you have looked at it.
Three rings of marriage are the engagement ring, the wedding ring, and the suffering.
Anon
Like good wine, marriage gets better with age – once you learn to keep a cork in it.
Gene Perret
Women hope men will change after marriage but they don’t; men hope women won’t change but they do.
Bettina Arndt
Husbands, do yourself a favour; love your wives.
H, Page Williams