Ephesians 5:22-24

 A Focus on the Family

There is no verb in Ephesians 5:22 in the original Greek. Verse 22 is literally “wives to your husbands, as to the Lord.” When reading Greek, what one does in this case is borrow the verb from the previous sentence. This is how we get “wives, subject yourselves to your husbands, as to the Lord.”

In these words to wives about submission, the verb comes from a sentence which calls for mutual submission to one another. Why is this significant? Because the message for submission is not just to wives. When you carry over the verb from verse 21, the assumption is that each member of the family will submit to one another in the fear of Christ. With Christ as the head, everyone submits to Him, and our human relationships fall naturally into place.

The analogy in verse 24 helps us to understand this as well. The church is to Christ as the wife is to her husband. We will get to the second person in this analogy tomorrow as the husband has the gargantuan undertaking of being like Christ in the marriage relationship. But for today, what can wives (and husbands) learn about her being like the church? The church follows the leadership of Christ because of the sacrifice that Christ made for her. A wife should not have an issue following the leadership of her husband if her husband is serving in the humble, meek attitude that Christ shows. When a husband acts like that, the wife can look to her husband for protection, love, and commitment. She submits herself to her husband because she knows that her husband has her best interest in mind. Tomorrow, we will review the husband’s role in his wife's submission to him. May we all have marriages that glorify God.