Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.  (23)Fornthe husband is the head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.  (24) Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ,So let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (25) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, (26) that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, (27) that He might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.  (28) So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself.  (29) For  no one ever Hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. (30) For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of  His bones. (31) “For This reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh”. (32) This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 

The letter to the EPHESIANS was written by the Apostle Paul. Today’s verses concern Christian marriage – Paul based the roles of husband and wife on the relationship between Christ and the church He founded.

There is inherent authority in the church AND at home – submission to this authority does not translate into weakness. Jesus, as ever our model, came into this world as a servant – Jesus submitted to the will of the Father, even to the cross. The Bible does not say that husbands are commanded to be the head of the household but instead states this as fact while discussing the role of the wife.  It also does not say that men are to dominate and suppress women.  The head/husband is accountable and responsible for the well being of his charges.

We live in a world where the culture is based on the principle of self.  We are daily bombarded with people and groups demanding their rights.  As Americans we are culturally opposed to the concept of authority – we seem to be wanting an egalitarian society and these feelings have extended into the concept of marriage.  But Christian marriage is modeled on the principle of responsibility to and love for those under authority and most especially the doctrine that  those in authority will be accountable to God.

As I thought about today’s verses I thought  of c.s. Lewis and The Great Divorce.  Lewis frames everything in the prism of our relationship with God. “Human beings can’t make one another really happy for long……….You cannot love a fellow-creature fully till you love God……no natural feelings are high or low, holy or unholy, in themselves.  They are all holy when Gods hand is on the rein. They go bad when they set up on their own and make themselves into false gods.”