Most are familiar with the scripture, “Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.” I bet if asked, many women would admit that either in the past or in the present, their ears have closed off after hearing that one line and they couldn’t tell you what comes before or after it. Sound familiar? Men, have you ever flaunted that one line to your wife? Do you know what comes before or after it?
Be subordinate to one another out of reverence for Christ.
Did you catch the reciprocity? Do you see the mutual self-gift? (Underlines are mine.)
Wives should be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord.
As submission to the Lord is done out of love, and is a choice of free will, so is a wife’s submission to her husband.
For the husband is head of his wife just as Christ is head of the church, he himself the savior of the body.
Think of what Christ did for the church? Do you not see a husband’s great responsibility? Will Christ ever leave his church?
As the church is subordinate to Christ, so wives should be subordinate to their husbands in everything.
Husbands cannot command what the Lord forbids. Christ subjected the church to himself so that he could guide her to purity, truth, and holiness, as these were virtues He had.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ loved the church and handed himself over for her to sanctify her, cleansing her by the bath of water with the word,
Christ preached the words of everlasting life and died for the sanctification of the church. Husbands, are your words to your wife life-giving? How or what will you sacrifice for the sanctification of your wife? Wives, how will you sacrifice for your husband?
that he might present to himself the church in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.
Christ elevates the church to Himself rather than forces the church beneath himself. Are you doing the same for your spouse? Do you help her be all that God created her to be?
So [also] husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one hates his own flesh but rather nourishes and cherishes it, even as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.
Self-love comes very easy to us. Do you love your spouse as much as yourself? Consider that through the sacrament of marriage, you and your spouse become ONE.
For this reason a man shall leave [his] father and [his] mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This is a great mystery, but I speak in reference to Christ and the church.
Who has more influence over you, your parents or your spouse? Are you and your spouse a united front? Are you acting for the good of one another?
Spend some time meditating on Ephesians 5:21-32. What is the Lord saying to you? Pray for your marriage, and if you aren’t married, please pray for someone else’s marriage. May God richly bless all of you who pray so faithfully for marriages.
Peace, Joy, and Love,
Janet
Marriage, as God intended it, is most beautiful. Pass it on!!
