Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the Church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the Church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought to also love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the Church, because we are members of His body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. (Genesis 2:24.)This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the Church.
Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
This is a rather long passage. I notice, though, that Paul spends twice as much space talking to the husbands than he does to the wives.
Wives are counseled to give their husbands the respect that is a man's most basic and fundamental need, to be looked up to. She is to show this respect in observing the rank of authority her husband has over her, in her obeying and being subject to Him in the Lord. Regardless of his character or personality.
Jesus complemented the Centurion for his faith when he showed understanding of the order of authority (Luke 7:9). We also must recognize the order of authority we have over and under others. So the husband out-ranks the wife.
This does not mean he is better than she is, or more important, or more valuable, he just holds a higher rank of authority over her.
So she has a high standard to live out with her husband.
The husband, on the other hand, is given much more responsibility in the marriage. He represents the head over her, as Christ is head over the Church Universal. He is to live with his wife with the same attitude Christ has toward His Church--of sacrificial benefit toward her.
How many men would be able to live up to that standard? Not any, I would suppose. But he is responsible for her, to care for her and take care of her, to do for her sacrificially whatever it is she needs. And he does have the final word, the final decision.
The verse that immediately precedes this passage tells us all to be subject to one another in Christ. So this also applies to both wives and husbands, as well as all the rest of us.
O my Father, You take such good care of all of us--You have given us all this beautiful Earth, with the Moon and Stars, in the Universe. You have put in this Earth everything we will ever need while we live here, to build our World upon it and to care for one another.
Father, You have given wives to husbands, and husbands to wives, to form the societies that build civilizations.
And You have given us Your written Word, with its laws, rules, guidelines and advice; so we would learn how to treat one another, and how to love with Your Love. To reap all the bounty You built into this Earth.
Father, when Your people Israel followed Your rules, they prospered. But when they forgot that You are the Giver, is when they turned away from You to idols, and lost the wealth they had had. We see this cycle repeat for over 400 years in the Book of Judges.
Now You have given us Your Holy Spirit to live inside us, to teach us and lead us and keep us in Your compassionate care. And to give us the power to obey all Your laws and rules, that are now principles that go farther than the Law did.
Now we are to love one another with Your Love, not just our own human love. You call us to live super-human lives, with spiritual power and might, beyond our human abilities and capabilities.
You have called us to a royal life, becoming servants to one another, to learn how to be Your children. The children of the Great King, who gave Himself as the Sacrifice to cleanse His bride.
So, Father, teach us how to humble ourselves in service to one another; teach wives how to honor and respect their husbands, teach husbands how to sacrificially serve their wives.
Teach us all how to be subject to one another, considering our neighbor's needs before our own, even when that neighbor sleeps on the other side of our bed as our spouse. Or in the next room as our family member.
Let our charity begin at home with our own hearts and our own families. As Christians we all live in glass houses, that the World watches critically, looking for cracks and imperfections to exploit.
And our enemy is still and ever more furiously working to destroy families and twist God's good gifts into unrecognizable monstrosities.
O Father God, please strengthen Your own. Show us how to be strong in Your strength. Help us to be wise with Your wisdom. Grant us to be compassionate with Your compassion.
And may Your Truth be proclaimed throughout the Earth, that it would set free the captives, break the chains that bind, and collapse the prison walls, to liberate those imprisoned by the lies of the enemy.
Even so, come, Lord Jesus!
