TRUTH AND LOVE PUBLISHING MINISTRY

     Ephesians 5: 22-24 says, "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church: and He is the savior of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything."

    The word submit relative to wives needs to be understood a little differently from the way it has been so often interpreted in the past. It is not, "wives, obey your husbands." Submit is a very mild word. It is a loving word. It means to respond unto your own husband as unto the Lord. The way we respond to the Lord is that we love Hum because He first Loved us (1 John 4:19). And notice that it says "unto your own husbands." A very personal loving relationship is the ground for submission. Paul is definitely speaking to believers about Christian marriage.

    In this relationship of husband and wife, the man is the aggressor. He is the aggressor physically. He is the one who makes love.

    Woman is the responder, and man is the aggressor. The man is to say, "I love you," and he is the one who does the proposing/ She is the one to say "yes." No woman is asked to say "I love you" to a man until he has said "I love you." When a man says he has a cold wife, it is because she has a cold husband. He is not being the husband that he should be. It is not her business to be the aggressor. Her role is the sweet submission of love.

    "The husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church." In what way? It is a love relationship, and the husbamd is to be head for the sake of order. Wives are to be subject to their husbands. Husbands are to be subject to Christ. Children are to be subject to parents. It is to be a sweet subjection, a willing subjection to someone who loves you. It is to be that kind of relationship. If there is no love in it, the idea of submission is not worth a snap of the finger.

    According to some great Christian marriage counselors, about 75 percent of the fault in marriages is on the side of the men. It is the man who is to keep the lovelight burning. In the beautiful Song of Solomon, the bridegroom says to the bride, "Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair..." (Song of Solomon 1:15), and she responds, "my beloved is mine, and I am his..." (Song of Solomon 2:16). He expresses his love first, and then she responds.

    Back in the garden of Eden, God started out with a romatic pair, Adam and Eve. Probably he did not give that woman to Adam until Adam realized that he needed someone. She was given as a helpmeet or helpmate. A helpmeet is just the other half of man. Man is half a man without a wife. God joined them together and called them Adam- not The Adams.

 

Written by Osmundo Sabado

Edited by Orman Sabado