To Encourage You

Ephesians 5:22 “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”

Ephesians 5:25 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her”

If you would like an example of how this world’s thinking is antithetical to the mind of God, bring up

Ephesians 5:22 in a group of non-Christians.  And if you want an example of how the world’s thinking has infected the church of Jesus Christ, bring up this same verse to a group of Christians.  Invariably, it’s a verse that will raise the hackles on someone’s neck, or it will be met with opinions by those who say this verse doesn’t really mean what it so clearly says. 

I’m struck with how few verses in the Bible deal specifically with husbands and wives, but they almost always say the same thing.  This call for wives to be in submission to their husbands is found in the verse above as well as in Colossians 3:18, Titus 2:5, and 1 Peter 3:1.  As for husbands, the command to love our wives is found in the verse above, is repeated in verse 18 of the same chapter, and then again in Colossians 3:19.  Other than this there is very little that is said specifically to husbands and wives in the entire Bible. 

So, why are they there?  Why is anything in the Bible, for that matter?  Obviously, it’s because we need to hear it.  One of my favorite Bible passages is 2 Timothy 3:16-17, which says, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”  It’s the remembering of this verse that often puts me in the proper mindset for studying anything in the Scriptures.  God is telling us that every bit of it is profitable for us in many ways.  Otherwise, He wouldn’t have told us what He did.  God is not One to waste words. He’s not One Who speaks to have His words “fall to the ground” (1 Samuel 3:19), as it were.  And so, He’s told wives and husbands the simple commands above for their own good.  Apparently, it’s these specific things that are the most often neglected within marriages and marriages have paid a terrible price as a result.  If you don’t think so, look around at the rampant marital strife and divorce rates in this world.  Inevitably, it is the failure of one or both partners in a marriage to obey what God has said that is at the heart of these problems.  Inevitably, it is a failure to love. 

Submission of one’s will to another person is one aspect of love.  In fact, love, the agape love that is referred to in Ephesians 5, can be defined as “self-sacrificial service to others.”  So, in essence, both husbands and wives are being told the same thing.  Love one another. Put your spouse’s needs first.  Make it your mission to care for them.  And in all of this, look at Christ as your example.  And you know what, if both partners in a relationship are doing this, if they are seeking to honor Christ and His Word with all their hearts, there is absolutely no way that that marriage will fail.  But if one or both persons in that relationship refuse to obey – well just look at this world, and you can see the result.