Marriage (part V)
Submit and Serve

“Wives submit to your husbands as to the Lord-----husbands, love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself for her.”(Ephesians 5:22-25)

It’s a very simple task to talk about the roles in marriage. Both spouses must be careful to treat one another just as Christ taught. Again, the marriage relationship is a reflection of the relationship between the Church and the Lord. The wife is to submit her will and desires to the husband as she would to Christ. This remember, requires that the husband is living in a respectable manner. She is not to submit to abuse and other forms of threats, of course. The husband has an even simpler task: love your wife “as Christ loved the church.” This verse rings clearly to me more and more each day.

A wife has to submit and respect. A husband has to love and serve. I can also put it into two simple words for both husband and wife: mutual submission, to Christ and to one another! You see, it’s ALL about our relationship to the Lord. How much do we love Him? We as men love to tell the wife to read about submission. Well, husbands, just worry about our part; “as Christ loved the church”! There is no greater submission than that! Wives are not even commanded to love us. The burden is on the husband to nurture, care, protect, beautify, and love the wife so the marriage relationship may be honorable and holy unto the Lord! God requires this of the husband.

I have yet to hear of a wife who would not willingly, respectfully, and lovingly submit to her husband’s wishes if he is truly living to honor the Lord. He will never be a perfect husband, but one who is willing to be Christ-like in all his dealings will no doubt please his wife. Even as we work out our personal salvation, we work out our marriage relationship as well. Be patient, as Christ is with us. Be submissive to one another, as Christ was to the Father. Be servants to one another, as Christ modeled for all of us! Be a model of God’s love to the world that they may know the Lord loves them just as He loves us!