Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. Ephesians 5:22

Previously, I wrote about the husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church.  Now, I broach a much more sensitive verse.  In our society, submission is not looked upon with much favor.  Submission is equated with weakness.  The biblical sense of submission is quite different from that.  As the husband is to be submitted to God, the wife is to be submitted to her husband.  If the husband is going to be the spiritual head of the household, then the wife must submit to that headship.   To rebel against the husband is to rebel against God.

Wives, if you want your household to be in proper order, you must submit to your husbands.  This obviously does not mean that the wife is to be a doormat to her husband and never have any authority in the home.  What it does mean is that the husband has the responsibility for the spiritual leadership in the household and with responsibility comes authority.  Many wives complain that their husbands won’t take the spiritual lead.  The wife must empower the husband by submitting to him in spiritual matters. 

The first step in submitting to your husband is to submit to God.  Trust God to guide your husband.  The biggest problem I see in this area is where neither the husband nor the wife were Christians submitted to God when they got married.  This causes a real struggle in the marriage because God was not the head of it to begin with.  To get such a household in proper order takes a lot of surrendering to Holy Spirit and usually involves much confessing and repenting.

According to God’s plan, both husband and wife should have been raised in loving, Christian homes.  Both husband and wife should have been waiting on and trusting in God to bring them together with the mate God had prepared for them.  The marriage should have begun and continued on in fellowship with God.  Not many marriages are formed in this manner and it is a pity.  So, be willing to allow God to put your household in order and obey this command in Holy Spirit power.  The rewards are worth the tribulation you may have to go through to get there.  Hey, who said it was easy?  But obedience to God is always worth it.