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Yesterday we focused on the assignment that God gives every husband. And we emphasized that it is a very tall order! Every husband is to love his wife just as Christ loved the church. Today we’ll focus on the biblical instruction for wives from Ephesians 5. Let’s be receptive to understanding what is truly expected.

Ephesians 5:22-24
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.

Submission. Our culture has made this to be an antiquated word that smacks of servitude. And, no doubt, many misguided and despicable men, who profess to be believers, have abused their wives using this verse. This is ungodly and unscriptural!

This passage speaks to the God-given assignments in the family. Think of a partnership between a president and vice-president of a company. They work in collaboration, but one has the final responsibility. So, it is in marriage and family. Wives are to voluntarily submit themselves to the servant-leadership of their husbands (See yesterday’s devotional on servant-leadership. The partnership doesn’t work if the man is not fulfilling his role as a servant-leader).

Submission does not mean that the wife is inferior to her husband. Submission does not mean that the wife loses her identity in the relationship. Submission does not mean that the wife becomes a passive participant. The apostle Peter used Sarah, Abraham’s wife, as an example of submission. Read about Sarah in Genesis 16-21. She was anything but a quiet, passive, non-participant! But she stuck by her husband during disappointments, difficulties, and discouragement. God blessed her for her unwavering commitment.

Father, don’t let us place the culture’s definition on biblical truth. Help each husband and wife fulfill the roles in marriage that you have designed. In Jesus’ name. Amen.