Marriage and Family: Mutual Submission

Ephesians 5:21-33 - 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

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

25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.

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Study Questions

1. What is the main point of Ephesians 5:21-24? How does it relate to its context? 

2. In what way does God’s Word in Ephesians 5:22 command Christian wives to submit to their own husbands and what is the significance of the phrase, “as to the Lord?”

3. How does Ephesians 5:24 establish a correlation between the church's submission to Christ and wives' submission to their husbands?

4. What does “wives should submit in everything to their husbands” mean? What restrictions might be precluded?

Deeper Study Questions

1. The scriptures teach mutual submission in a Christian marriage. If you are married, how do you submit to your spouse? If you are not married, in what way you might submit to your spouse?

2. If you had the opportunity to correct someone's misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and misuse of wives’ submission to husbands, how would you explain this divine principle for godly marriage?

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