How a Wife Submits, Part 2
Thursday, June 20
For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything. (Ephesians 5:22-24)
Today there's a lot of oppression on wives in the name of submission. Alas, preachers and husbands use this verse to oppress wives. This is not the intention of Paul. The scriptures can never create oppression.
Many times, people interpret and apply the scripture wrongly because they read the scripture wrongly. And there's a worldview they use to read. So, they interpret based on their worldview. When we read the Bible, we should read in light of the storyline of the book, and its context. And we should read looking at word connectors like "for", "so", "therefore", "as", etc. Now let's look at what Paul is saying.
When Paul said, "As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything", he is speaking in the sense of cause and effect. The reason the church submits to Christ is because He is the head of the church. We've already seen the meaning of headship. In other words, the church submits to Christ in light of His headship. That is, it is the headship of Christ that commands the church's submission. The headship of Christ creates the church's submission. Without headship, there's no submission. And without submission, there's no headship.
Wives, you should submit to your husband in light of how the church submits to Christ. Your husband's headship creates your submission. Without his headship, you cannot submit to him in everything. In this context, your husband's headship is non-existent without your submission. And your submission is also non-existent without his headship. Two sides of the same coin. Wives, submit to your husband's headship in everything.
Doing the Word
Submit to your husband as part of your obedience to Christ.
Prayer
Dear Father, give me wisdom to understand what it means to submit myself to my husband. Help me to be humble to submit myself to him as to Christ. In Jesus' name, Amen.