Ephesians 5:22-24
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.
Colossians 3:18
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
I always submit to my husband it is good. amen
It is good… and endearing.
Even when he leaves his socks on the floor?
Reed, my dear husband does not leave his socks on the floor, and if he did I would gladly pick them up. We are comfortable in our lives together, he does the listening and I do the talking lol. Seriously, I will continue now, Ephesian 5:25-33 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself for her, that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, that he might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. So husbands ought to love their own 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 the Lord does the church. For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of his bones. “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband…Amen.. yes we must submit to our husbands but they have more responsibilty, to us as wives, as you can see from the above quoted text from the NKJ. I have something else to add, I am now on my 3rd husband, this one has lasted the longest, and I pray that we both get taken out together, as neither would want to stay here without the other.
Thank you for sharing that Hilda. It sounds like you follow this submission advice/instruction well which is good for you and your husband – but not so good for my objective. I was hoping to provoke the opposing view for the benefit that would come from a discussion.
Wives submitting to their husbands is a contentious issue. Husbands loving their wives is not contentious but is always the focus when these scriptures are discussed.
Sorry Reed dont you know who I am.. I will speak the truth in love, and as for husbands loving their wives is not contentious, well that is something a women would probably disagree with. After all these verses do not only speak of loving, but isnt Paul saying that the husbands must lay do their lives for their wives. Trouble is even though we have these instructions we tend to live for our own selfish needs and wants. My husband is the deal breaker in our lives as he his my husband. Thankyou for giving me this opportunity to have my say.
You’re Hilda Shaw aren’t you?
You will struggle to find anyone that thinks that husbands shouldn’t love their wives. Even awful husbands (I expect) would agree that husbands should love their wives. “Husbands love you wives…” is not contentious at all.
“Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands…” is contentious – It’s not difficult to find people that disagree with this and the political ideology (Feminism), taught in schools, explicitly opposes this doctrine.
My observation is that even in church this topic is approached cautiously – so cautiously as to be useless.
Can you give a specific example of a situation where you’ve seen a wife not submitting to her husband?
Do you want me to agree with what you say, or what do you want. There are untold examples of women not submitting to their husbands just as there are numerous examples of men not loving their wives. The feminist Christian to me, does not make sense. There is no room for that in the body of Christ, just as there is no room for the husband who thinks his wife being submissive, should debase her in anyway. I do not even believe that a woman should preach in a church, as I believe what is written in the word. Of course when this subject is preached, it should include both the husband loving his wife, and the wife being submissive. It should be done in such a way that a woman, must not be made to feel, she should have to endure whatever her husband wants. This could include, depraved and unnatural acts, which some people could enjoy, but others find offensive. If there is not enough time on the day, further preaching should be done. I would advise, preaching the latter part on the first week, it could lessen the impact the following week. There is unfortunately an attitude especially nowadays, (and the young are taught such things at school) that woman should do whatever she wants. There is also a problem in society today, where women usually have to be in paid full employment, and they want more say. Which is fair enough, but they could even want to be the boss. Honestly, in my opinion, a successful marriage is give and take between the spouses, but ultimately the husband, even if he does not have paid employment, is the head of the house.
Speak the truth in love.
It’s always preached like that… that’s why I said my observation is that even in church this topic is approached cautiously – so cautiously as to be useless. Submission is never defined, lack of submission is never identified and even wives’ dominating actions go unchallenged.
For the readers’ benefit can you give a specific example of a situation where you’ve seen a wife not submitting to her husband? The more trivial the example the better.
The reason I asked about socks earlier was to give an example of a dominating act – a wife getting angry with her husband over him leaving his socks on the floor.
Hi Reed, I have been thinking of this for a while, and I must admit I have had to trawl back in my mind. We live pretty isolated here, and I was going to church, but I havent done that for a while. But I can tell you that yes, many times I witnessed a wife acting in a way which was not submissive at all, but being a downright bully to him. Men being told by their wives, in front of people, to “hurry up we are going”, refusing to even listen to their husbands when being asked to do something like, go and look after the children, when the subject of submission is preached, there is usually a sea of discontent, among the people who have not surrended themselves to the Lord. Maybe it is easier for me to submit to my husband because I know that he would give his life for me. But even I am not perfect, and sometimes have to ask the Lord for help, as it goes against the grain to yield to a person.
Great example.
One more thing… this advice or instruction is for wives… it is not for men i.e. it does not say “Husbands dominate your wives.”