This article will conclude our discussion concerning the biblical submission of a wife to her husband. We are looking at Ephesians 5:22-24 where we find God’s instructions to married women:
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, His body, and is Himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands” (Ephesians 5:22-24).
Writing under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul says that a godly wife can effectively obey God’s command to submit to her husband once she understands three clarifications about submission. So far, we have discussed the first two of these clarifications: the exhortation (verse 22) and the explanation (verse 23). A short review is in good order.
The Exhortation (22)
“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”
Scripture exhorts all married women to submit to their husbands. This submission does not rule out the wife’s duty to submit to men who are not her husband, those such as elders in her local church. But the emphasis of verse 22 has to do with her first level of submission, which belongs to her husband. She is to submit to him as a matter of obedience to her Lord. In fact, a lack of submission to her earthly husband is equivalent to disobedience to her heavenly husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. This point comes out in verse 23. A wife is to submit to her husband in all things, which means every category. The apostle Paul is not speaking about a weak guidance of the wife by the husband, but his strong leading of her. She is to look to him for protection and provision.
The Explanation (23)
“For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.”
Scripture’s reason for the wife’s submission comes by way of analogy. Just as the church is to submit to Christ, so too should the wife submit to her husband. The book of Ephesians emphasizes the believer’s union with Christ. It describes the individual Christian as being placed within the body of Christ. This union is vital, mystical, and spiritual. “There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). A Christian woman is part of Christ’s body. Christ is the Head of His body, and the body is directed by the Head. Part of the woman’s submission to Christ (her Head) involves her submission to the husband with whom she made covenantal vows. By voluntarily placing herself under her husband’s headship, the wife is also placing herself under Christ’s headship.
The Expectation (24)
Verse 24 sets forth the ultimate expectation of wives to their husbands, “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.”
The ultimate question of the wife should not be, “What does my husband expect of me in my marriage?” Rather, she should ask, “What do the Scriptures expect of me as a Christian?” When she asks that question, she finds the answer in verse 24. Wives are to submit to their husbands in the same way the church submits to Christ. In other words, just as the church is expected to submit to Christ in all things, so too are wives to submit to their husbands “in everything”.
Christ expects a total commitment to God by His followers. He said,“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). One of the chief ways a wife shows her full commitment to God is by selflessly, unreservedly, perseveringly–and to the glory of Christ faithfully–submitting to her husband in all things. She might ask, “How can I give myself so wholly to my husband when my fullest expression of love belongs to Christ?” A wife shows her deep devotion to Christ by serving her husband. She best loves him by submitting to him. She shows her love for Christ by loving her husband. Jesus says loving God with total commitment is significant because it’s “the great and first commandment” (Matthew 22:38). But He also adds, “And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39).
A Christian wife’s most intimate and immediate neighbor is her husband. She’s been joined to him in a one flesh temporal (i.e. earthly) union. Her love for him must run deep, second only to Christ in whom she enjoys a deep spiritual bond and eternal union.
The Christian woman is to wear the gospel garment of submission. Such spiritual clothing will be despised by the world. But the cross is scandalous, foolish, and weak before the world as well (I Corinthians 1:18; 21-25). Let women learn to be fools for Christ’s sake. The problem is not the weakness of salvation, but the weakness of the sinner in seeing the beauty of the cross. In the same vein, the problem is not the weakness of submission. It takes a spiritually strong woman to submit to her husband. The problem is the weakness of the sinner who is unable to see the beauty of submission.