Submission is Mutual

We ended last time by looking at the context of the command to the wife in Ephesians 5:22 to submit to her husband. We saw that the command was in the context of having a husband who obeyed the command to him in Ephesians 5:25 to love his wife as Christ loved the church. That shouldn't be surprising. Submission to one another is a Biblical mandate. Just prior to this section dealing with the husband and the wife, there is the general command of Ephesians 5:21, which says, "submitting to one another in the fear of God." Within the body of Christ, we are all supposed to submit to one another - me to you, you to me, each of us to each other.

And we are told how to do this. Philippians 2:3-4, part of a longer passage dealing with Christ humbling Himself and coming to earth to die on the cross for us, teaches us how this submitting should be done. Philippians 2:3-4 says, "Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." That's how it is supposed to work within the church - the body of Christ, the Family of God. Then Paul shows us who did it first. In Philippians 2:5 it says, "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." Jesus gave us the example of submission. He submitted to His Father, even to the point of death. He died on the cross for us who are so unworthy.

In that way, husbands are as obligated to submit to their wives as to any one else, but even more so. They must be willing to die for their wives, as Christ was willing to die for the church. Now certainly, if we are supposed to submit to one another this way in the Body of Christ, how much more so should we be willing to submit to our husband or wife - the one person in all the world we have chosen to live with for life? How much more ready should we be to esteem them better than ourselves and to put their needs ahead of our own?

So think about the context of the command for the wife to submit to her husband. Who is her husband? If he is the man of God he should be, he will be living out the command to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He will be considering his wife as better than himself. He will look out for her interests more than his own. He would willing die for her if it were necessary. Nothing is more submissive than that. He will be a good person to live with, and an easy man to submit to.