ICS Daily Devotions
It Is a Blessing to Submit
Eph 5:22-23 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23.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.
Scripture contains two very simple instructions with regards to the husband and wife’s relationship: the wife is to submit to the husband and the husband is to love the wife. However, these two instructions are also a major hindrance between couples today to love each other and to make their marriage work.
Submission is primarily a military term to do with place and ranking. The Bible states clearly that the husband is the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the church therefore everyone is subject to the Word of God. Submission in Hebrew also means to yield and to take the lower place. To submit simply means to yield your way to someone else or someone ranked above you.
Even if the wife is more spiritually mature than the husband, she is still to show respect to her husband for his position of leadership instituted by God. She should wait and pray with patience as she trusts that he will eventually grow into the leadership with much love, affirmation and belief that come from her. When it comes to submission, it means the wife should yield to the husband’s decision even though she may not agree, as long as the decision does not violate Christian values and principles or endanger her life.
Note however that although the Bible says to submit to one another, it does not say we are to force or command one another into submission. The Bible says the wife is to submit to the husband, but it does not say the husband should force the wife into submission. Instead, the husband is to love his wife like Christ loved the church.
The opposite of submission is rebellion. When we knowingly and willfully disobey the Lord’s commandment, we are in rebellion. Submission is not easy because the flesh will react, and it is especially hard for those who have lived an individualistic life or those who are the only child in the family. However, it is a blessing to do so, because it helps us to mature in our Christian walk, and it is in the process of submission that we learn to allow real love for our husband, peace, patience, kindness, and self-control to flow out of our lives.
Sermon Series: Divorce Paper