This past week we have been discussing “submission” and how we view it in a Christian marriage…most particularly what it means to be a “submissive wife”. In my last post, we were dissecting Ephesians 5.
Ephesians 5:22-33 NIV
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 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.
I can’t help but feel that we also need to take a look at the other side, the other piece of the puzzle. Because indeed this term “marriage” is a team effort…it takes two! What is a husband’s role in marriage? How does Christ call our husbands to this life long commitment? We get so caught up at the word “submit” that we fail to finish reading the rest.
Ephesians 5:25-33
This part of Ephesians is beautiful. Ephesians points out what marriage and love is all about. God asks husbands to “love their wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”…think about that for a second… God wants husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church…what a deep and powerful love that is! God really set the bar high. He wants husbands to strive to be like Jesus, to love like Jesus did. The passage goes on to talk about husbands loving their wives as their own bodies. Since our bodies are considered a temple for God we need to remember how serious this request is. Wives are asked to “submit” to their husbands but God asks husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. God is asking them to be willing to put their lives down for their wives. To give their life as Jesus gave His. This love God describes is sacrificial. And there is nothing more powerful than love that is practiced with a servant’s heart.
