For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
Ephesians 5:23-24
The role of the husband involves headship. This headship is to be a mirror in how Christ serves as head and Savior. Christ has the authority but He uses it to save, sacrifice, and serve. Again, power and rank are present, but they are in the context and configured on how that power is used and applied, not just mentioned in isolation. This is an example for the husbands role as head by the way Jesus cares for the church and honors her as His bride. Paul’s entire point about this headship is captured by service, nurturing, and care. Obedience is not something for the husband to demand. In the husband’s love for his wife, he is to show concern for the needs and wellbeing of his wife.
Showing concern for the needs and wellbeing of my wife does not assume or assert that she is any less capable than me…on the contrary, she in fact ‘completes’ ME. I am so much less without her. This instruction from God’s Word only has benefit, never detriment. Meaning, my wife’s call to submission should only result in a benefit to her. Woe to me if I were to ever use this passage as way to control my wife (sinful). Especially if that were in the act of decision making that would encourage my wife to submit to something sinful. The thought of this actually makes me recoil.
Application:
I must tread carefully in fear of God in the role He has placed in my marriage as husband and father. My nose better be buried in God’s Word looking for His light to direct the paths of our family. This call to wives should be super convicting and humbling to us husbands, not the other way around. The gravity I feel for the care and well-being of Marianne should totally usurp my needs…as we will read in the following verses.
Today’s Psalm:
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
and at night his song is with me,
a prayer to the God of my life.Psalms 42:8