“And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 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. For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. And we are members of his body. As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”
Ephesians 5:21-33 NLT
This passage is not about Husbands and Wives. It is a passage about the attitude of submission. It is about the concept that submission is a necessary outworking of being made in the image of God and a tots blessing for those who willing participate in it. The key to this passage starts with the concept of reverence. Reverence is that attitude one exhibits when they greatly respect something. Here we find that willingness to participate in submission is not about station or value, or even rank. It is about respect for Christ. Christ, being equal in nature to God the Father, chose to be in submission. He did this to accomplish the Father’s purposes out of reverence for him. It was his love and respect that drove him to die for our sins. I suspect there are many Christians who would not die for the sins of their own families, because they have no reverence for God or for his son. They have thanks, but not love or respect. At the end of the day, participating in these things, is what makes us more like him. And when we do this, we become fulfilled
JOSH McGARY. COM 