God in His perfection and order through His holy and precious Word gives us instruction on how to provide discipleship in the home, this passage below is a picture of how a husband and a wife are called to live. God is a God of order and not chaos. He gives us this order for the family. These verses can cause great contention in the home when not lived out properly. This passage starts out by saying that husbands and wives should submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Remember that Christ submitted His will to His Father even unto death upon the cross!! Job 22:21 says, “Submit to God, and you will have peace, then things will go well for you.” When we submit (surrender) our lives to Christ, we are more likely to submit to others. When both husbands and wives are submitted to Christ and to each other there is harmony in their homes. This passage also speaks of husbands loving their wives as Christ loved the church and loving them as much as they love themselves. Christ loved us (His church) so much that He died for us! If a husband loves His wife that much then mutual submission should not be a problem because as Christ gave His life for the church – a husband sacrificing everything for his wife is the picture of what Christ did on the cross. Now if this mutual submission is not a factor that is where problems enter in the equation. If a husband doesn’t love, honor and respect his wife she will not be willing to submit to him. It is important for this to be a factor in a marriage. The husband is also to be the spiritual leader in the home as Christ is the leader of the church.
Ephesians 5:21-30
And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 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. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the Word, and to present her to Himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of His body.
Devotional for the Day 