TEXT: EPHESIANS 5:21-33 (NLT)
21. And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
23 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.
24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her
26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.
27 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.
28 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.
29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church.
30 And we are members of his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.
32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
SUBMIT TO ONE ANOTHER
What does God say about submission in marriage? The first point to note here is that submission in marriage is mutual. Christian couples are the children of the most high God and are exhorted first to submit to one another as Christians in reverence to Christ, the head of the church, to which all believers belong. Eph 5:21 says: "... submit to one another out of reverence for Christ." Husbands should submit to their wives and wives should submit to their husbands as Christians in reverence to Christ. Now, what does this actually mean? How is this submission defined in the Bible, with regard to husbands and wives.
WHAT DIES SUBMISSION MEAN TO WIVES?
How should the wife submit to the husband? What does submission mean to the wife? Eph 5:22-24 explains: "For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord..." Wives should submit to their husbands as they would submit to Christ himself. As the head of the church, believers are subject to Christ Lordship. Similarly, wives are to submit themselves in everything to their husbands, as they are the head of the home. Wives should respect their husbands by submitting to them. Sarah understood the meaning of submission as reverence for her husband, calling Abraham lord (1 Pet 3:6).
WHAT DOES SUBMISSION MEAN TO HUSBANDS
What about husbands? What does it mean to submit to your wife? Eph 5:25-31 give details: "For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her..." The meaning of submission to husbands is unreserved and unconditional love for their wives. Christ emptied himself for the church, so must the husband empty himself for his wife. He must 'die' (give everything) for his wife, just as Christ died (gave his life) for the church. To make the church glorious and radiant, without spot or wrinkles, Jesus sacrificed his life. A radiant wife is the evidence of the sacrifice the husband makes on a daily basis. Agape love is selfless sacrifice. The husband must leave all other relationships to be one with his wife. He must care for his wife as he cares for his own body, sparring nothing. Eph 5:28-29 says: "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." In Gen 21:10-12, Abraham showed he understood the meaning of submission in marriage when he displayed his unconditional love for Sarah by agreeing to send Hagar and Ismael out of their home as Sarah demanded. Job was another man who knew what submission in marriage meant by showing unreserved love for his wife even though she failed on her own part.
RESPECT AND LOVE
In conclusion, the submission means total reverence/respect from wives to husbands, while it means unconditional/unreserved love from husbands to wives. Eph 5:33 says: "Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband."
PRAYER:
Father, help me to fulfil my part in my marriage and grant me grace to submit to you in all things even as I submit to my spouse in Jesus name.
CONFESSION:
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
God bless you. Shalom.
