4. Ephesians 5:22-33
22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 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. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church– 30 for we are members of his body. 31 ”For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery–but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
This passage is very special to me. The moment I asked my now wife to marry me, I got down on one knee and read part of this passage to her. Of course, I focused on the part of the passage about the husband’s role to love and serve his wife. Now I am a pastor, and I use this whole passage in every wedding I do as I teach the couple what the Bible says marriage should look like.
The Left hates this passage for two big reasons: 1. The passage discusses women submitting to their husband. 2. The passage teaches that men and women have distinct rolls in the marriage. Let’s cover both of those issues.
If you want to raise the anger of a so-called liberal woman, mention the idea of women submitting to their husbands. You better immediately duck or run. The idea of “submitting” makes people imagine husbands beating their wives or using some form of emotional and verbal abuse. And then the wife is supposed to take it and be her husband’s quiet slave. Hey, if that is what submission means then maybe you should hate the idea. But that concept has nothing to do with biblical submission.
Submit means to willingly choose to follow someone else’s lead. It has nothing to do with power or someone being greater. For example, Jesus submitted to his parents as a child. Since Jesus is God in the flesh, obviously He was greater than his parents. The whole passage isn’t about submission primarily anyway. The verses focus on telling husbands they are the ones who must sacrificially love, serve, and lead their wives. That is the type of husband a wife will happily submit to.
Couples are equal, the Scriptures are clear on that point, but they do have different roles. The Bible often talks about people having different roles or gifts or calling – but they are equal in value. It is completely missing that fact if you think different means unequal.
Of course the Left whole-heartedly believes different is unequal. The goal of socialism is to try to make everything the same. I refuse to believe a blue collar worker is less of a person than a white collar. Someone being of a different race doesn’t make them disadvantaged. And men and women are not unequal if you admit they are obviously different.
Next: Only those who work will have bread to eat.
