I jumped ahead on Saturday to Ephesians 6…because my heart needed it. Did your heart need it too?
So, let’s finish out the summer Bible study finishing with Ephesians 5.
This is the post I have put off writing.
“As the church submits to Christ, you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.” Ephesians 5:24
That one word: Submit. It can cause feminist everywhere to run screaming to burn their bras in protest. I am woman. Hear me roar!
Not exactly a word we would use to describe a modern women. And certainly not what society tells women that we should be doing. Especially when so many women are the head of the household, bringing home the bacon, and are getting the job done every.single.day.
The definition of submit is this: To yield or surrender (oneself) to the will or authority of another; To subject to a condition or process; To commit (something) to the consideration or judgment of another.
Some argue this instruction from Paul to submit to their husband is an antiquated ideal for women. I think it means more than the Webster definition of the word.
Christian author and actress, Candace Cameron Bure made headlines, and backlash, by saying she submits to her husband, Val Bure. I think she explained it well when she said, “The definition that I’m using with the word submissive is the biblical definition of that. So, it is meekness; it is not weakness. … It’s strength under control. It is bridled strength.”
This Biblical instruction does not say wives are valued less than their husband, nor does it say wives shouldn’t have their own thoughts, opinions, or desires. Paul gives instruction to both husbands and wives on how to treat each other with love and respect because “As a man leaves his father and mother and is joined as one with his wife, and the two are united as one.” [31]
Interestingly, Paul says more to husbands on how to treat their wife than anything else in Ephesians 5.
[25] For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her [26] to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. [27] He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. [28] In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. [29] No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. [30] And we are members of his body.
Marriage is a delicate balance of give and take, respect and submission, love and care, one but separate, equal but different.
Husbands and wives, above all else, should walk in love with one another.
Have Faith Everyday 
Anything outside the circle of marriage is hurtful. One man, one woman forever.
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