I like to listen to a pastor named Michael Yousef on Sirius radio while I’m waiting to go to work. I really like the way he preaches his message, very clear and concise and he gets his point across. This morning he was preaching about marriage and how wives are to submit to their husbands. Every time I’ve read about this biblical description of marriage it’s always women up in arms saying they will not be “submissive.” It’s not about being submissive and being a doormat, so far from that. In this passage from Ephesians 5:23-24 explains it perfectly.
| 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.
No where in the above verses does it say for wives to be submissive to their husbands. As a Christian I agree that wives should submit to their husbands. They are the person whom God has chosen for you to be with. I understand that not every marriage is a happy one and for that I’m deeply sorry if that is your situation. However, if you call yourself a Christian and you are a follower of Jesus, submitting to your husband as you do to the Lord is what you are supposed to do. I know in my experience once I submitted my life to God and learned of this bible passage I found it easy to submit to my husband. I’m not treated poorly or as a meek submissive wife as a result. Nor do I see myself as less than a partner in our marriage. Today in my marriage and after submitting to my husband I do see him as the head of our family. We make decisions together and no one person is seen as “better” than the other. I still color my hair different colors as I see fit and my husband still shakes his head in amusement. Nothing has changed except that he is the “head” the same way Christ is the head of the church. The Bible also states that my husband is to love me the way Christ loves His church 25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] 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. In my opinion the husband has a greater obligation to his wife according to the Bible and marriage than the wife has to her husband. I know my husband loves me as he loves himself. He takes care of himself and he takes care of me. Nothing is perfect, we are not a perfect couple on a pedestal nor is our marriage a perfect one. But I chose to follow the Bible’s instructions on marriage and it works. God’s instructions work! Amazing but not surprising. |
Menay O; mom to 4, Christian and thrift shopper on the side... 