Day 49 - Ephesians

Ephesians has some of my favorite passages in the New Testament.  It's a great book that details what Christian living looks like for a new community of faith trying to figure out that means.  It deals with the struggles between the Law and the grace of Christ.  One of the most famous parts of Ephesians is often it's most misquoted and misunderstood:

21 Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.



22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband. (Galatians 5:21-33)

Unfortunately, this passage is often divided up, which leads to a lot of confusion.  For centuries, men have loved quoting verses 22-24, but that's an incomplete reading, and that's a shame because this passage give such beautiful words of direction for husbands and wives.  The over arching theme of the passage for all parties is submission.  Christians, and especially Christian wives and husbands, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. 

That's what it's all about -- mutual submission.  That's the story of Christian marriage.  We must submit to each other, continually, putting each other's needs first.  Then, Paul calls on wives to submit to their husbands.  Why?  Because of the next section.  Christian husbands are called to love their wives as Christ loves the Church.  And what did Christ do for the church?  He died for it, gave himself up for it, completely surrendered to it.  That's what husbands are called to do. 

Men, are you willing to completely surrender for the sake of your wife?  Will you die to yourself and your own desires for her well-being?  Will you give yourself up for her, daily?  Now, I haven't met every Christian woman in the world, but most Christian women I do know would submit to a man who puts her needs first, who always acts in her best interest, who dies to his own needs to meet hers, who submits to God's will over his own, and who mutually submits to her.  Most women I know would follow a husband like that where ever he goes because she trusts him unconditionally.  However, when men are selfish or spout off that passage about submission without heeding the directive to mutually submit themselves and sacrifice as Christ has, it comes off as chauvinists and pig-headed.  And it is.  Submission in Christian marriage works both ways, and when it's done the way Paul describes it in Ephesians -- it's a beautiful thing.