Ephesians 5:22-32

Special Exhortations: the Christian Home: Wife and Husband

22. Wives Cp. Colossians 3:18; 1 Peter 3:1-6. In Col. the corresponding instructions about domestic duty are drawn expressly from the truth (Colossians 3:1) that the believer lives, in the risen Christ, a resurrection-life.

submit yourselves It is probable that the Gr. original has no verb here. R.V. accordingly reads in italics be in subjection to. But it is obvious that the thought if not the word is present, carried on from the last verse.

The Gospel on the one hand recognizes and secures woman's perfect spiritual equality with man, an equality which modifies and ennobles every aspect of possible "subjection"; on the other hand recognizes and secures man's responsible leadership.

your own Words of special emphasis, suggesting the holy speciality of the marriage relation.

as unto the Lord Who is, in a peculiar sense, represented to the wife by the husband. In wifely submission to him she not only acts on the general principle of the acceptance of the Will of God expressed in circumstances: she sees in that attitude a special reflection, as it were, of her relations to the Lord Himself. Her attitude has a special sanction thus from Him.