The last portion of Ephesians 5 is a difficult passage as it deals with submission and relationships in the home and in marriage that are to mirror Christ’s love for us.  I think the reason these verses cause such turmoil is that they are counter-culture and go against the thinking of today and women’s rights.  However, if we look at verse 5:21 and 5:32-33 we get to the heart of what Paul was saying.  God is a god of order and design.  Someone in the home has to make the final decision but any decisions need to be tempered and driven by love, a love like Christ has for us as believers.  Ephesians 5:21 “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”   We submit, yield or seek the approval of one another out of our love for Christ.  5:32-33 “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.”   An example of the mystery of Christ’s relationship to believers is seen in the loving, caring respectful relationship of a man and wife.  Submission to each other is done because of Christ and our love for Him.   Because Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead, we can live lives submitted to one another in love that mirror Christ’s love for us.

Have a blessed day as you consider how you are submitting or yielding your rights to others in Christ like love.

Linda

Here is the whole passage –Ephesians 5:21-33  ” Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.  ²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do 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 their own body, but they feed and care for their body, 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.”