Ephesians 5:22-24

Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.

(v22, NIV)

In the last verse, we are instructed by Paul to submit to one another. This submission is an outpouring of our reverence for Christ Jesus. However, now the focus is put on wives and they are told to submit to their husbands. This time, the submission is compared to our submission to the Lord. We are to serve the Lord and be submitted to him. We are followers of the Lord Jesus Christ, are we not? Similar to our submission to the Lord, wives are to submit to their husbands. Now, in the society and culture that we live in, you may be ready to pounce at the sound of that word. In response I say what one pastor I heard say in a sermon on this very passage, "I don't write the mail, I just deliver it." (Voddie Baucham). I saw a sermon series on love and marriage by him and highly recommend it.

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

(v23-24, NIV)

Christ is the head of the church. As followers of Christ, we make up the church. Since he is the head of the church and we are the church, we are in submission to him. We are even described as his body; it goes along with the analogy if he is the head. Regardless, if we are in submission to him as head of the church, wives should be in submission to husbands since they are head of the marriage. Again I realize you may want to object to this very fact. Simply exceptions or outrageous situations may come to your mind to counter whole this submission thing. You're welcome to simply blot it out of your bible, but I don't recommend it. It says wives are to submit in everything. It's difficult to worm your way around it's phrasing. You may also object to my stance because I'm a guy and this doesn't directly apply to me. Let me tell you, I think the responsibilities and duties of a biblical husband are far greater than the responsibilities and duties of a biblical wife (no offense). The real problem most people have with this whole submission thing is probably the situations and scenarios that popup in their head that involves a sinful husband who is not submissive to the Lord Jesus Christ. Voddie Baucham uses an illustration of the army in his sermon series. Let's say there's a sergeant who's been in the army for 5 years and a lieutenant who's only been there for 5 months. The lieutenant is higher rank. So what does the sergeant do if the lieutenant issues an order? He simply salutes and executes. That is his submission to his authority. This is how Voddie Baucham is trying to explain submission. Submission is to voluntarily rank yourself below another. It has nothing to do with value, it's about order. "Anything with two heads is a monster" (Voddibe Baucham). There can only be one head in the marriage and biblically that head is the man. Voddie Baucham also uses his illustration to show that if we expect others to respect us, we should submit to our own authorities. If the sergeant doesn't listen to his lieutenant, how does he expect a private to listen to him? In the same way, we should listen to the authorities in our life and submit to them if we expect others to submit to us. Ultimately, we are to submit to God. If the husband does not submit to God, how does he expect his wife to submit to him? This is of course with respect to a Christian marriage. Regardless, wives are to submit to their husbands.