Ephesians | Session 25 | 5:22-25

In our study today from Ephesians 5:22-25 we take a look at that controversial concept of submission, what it really means, why it is needed, and how God made us to fulfill different roles.

Verses 22-24: Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing.  Now he begins to show what true submission looks like practically. This submission, as with any other, is to be done as unto the Lord. I find it interesting that so many decry the plight of the woman in the West in yet they live and walk in the most free societies in history. This is because Christianity has made them equals and not property. 

Women's Liberation has gone too far in my opinion in that they are now destroying themselves. God's plan for men and women are simply different and the more we pull away from that plan, the worse it will become for all of us. 

Obviously, Paul would not have mentioned this if he had not deemed it to be an issue. Actually, it started in the Garden of Eden with Eve when she decided that God and Adam were not acting in her best interest. 

Interestingly, men are never told exclusively in Scripture to submit, but to love. Why? - I can only assume that men have problems loving and women have problems submitting. In actuality, it only works when both play their parts. Of course, that notion is not popular today and the divorce rates, broken families, and single motherhood bare this out. God has established natural order whether we like it or not, and there are consequences when it is not followed (1 Corinthians 11:3-9; Colossians 3:18; Titus 2:5). Any culture that rejects this will be to their own peril whether they believe it or not. 

Verse 25: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;  Now Paul turns his attention to husbands where he tells them to love their wives just as Christ does the church by giving himself for it. In like manner, the husband should be willing to lay his life down for his wife.