The Resistence to Submission

Whenever I preach on Ephesians 5:22, "Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord," I approach the task with both reluctance and excitement. My reluctance comes because I know that calling on wives to submit to their husbands isn't a popular topic. Lots of wives truly hate this verse. Submission goes against the grain of our fallen human natures. No one in the flesh wants to submit. As one woman said, "If you were married to the jerk I'm married to, you wouldn't submit either." She's probably right. Who in the flesh would want to?

Granted, it is not easy to submit. Were it not for our faith in Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit dwelling within us, it would be next to impossible. But with the power of the Spirit, all things are possible. We can live out the verses of Ephesians 5 within our homes by the power of the Spirit, and we can reclaim Eden. So knowing the way many women feel about this verse, there is some reluctance to approach the subject and teach it.

But there is excitement too. There is excitement because I know that if the husband and the wife truly both follow these principles, there will never be a problem within their marriage - at least not in their relationship to one another. If the wife truly submits to her husband's leadership, and if the husband truly loves his wife with the sacrificial love of Christ required by Ephesians 5:25, their home will reclaim the essence of Eden. Theirs will become again the marriage that God intended. GUARANTEED!