Day 4  - Your wife needs your submission.

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The word submission has taken on an incredibly negative connotation in today’s culture. It is often used to put women in a lower position than men, or to put people of a lesser rank or position under those above. Ephesians 5:23 says, “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.” Again, many times this verse is used to say husbands are over their wives because they are physically on top of the body. Let’s take this apart for one minute. If you are a head, can you do anything at all without a torso? Or appendages? A head on its own doesn’t last. However, a head works with the body – which cannot operate without a brain. The head and body are mutually submissive to each other. They lay down their own needs and desires for the sake of the other. Ephesians 5 concludes with the description of marital submission. It is preceded by one important verse, “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (verse 21). We are called to submit to each other, to be an example of the relationship of Christ and the church, of the trinity, etc.

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Now, I’m not saying that wives become the boss and husbands are to start checking off her list of demands. Husbands need to submit themselves to the will of God and what God has called you to do. You need to work with your wife to serve each other and be an example to those around you of Jesus submission to God’s will and the church’s submission to God.

 

Day #4 Scriptures

Ephesians 5:21-33 - 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 this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church—  for we are members of his body. “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.  However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.​

 

Day #4 Questions

1. What do you need to do to further submit to Christ? Is there something that he’s calling you to do that you have been putting off?
    

2. How is your marriage an example to others of your relationship to Christ?