Ephesians 5:22 Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her.
I think these two verses are very misunderstood by many people today. Wives, be subject to, or obey your husbands. This verse is taken out of context so much that it’s almost comical. We men want to quote this verse whenever we can to show our wives that they must obey us. The only thing is, this verse doesn’t mean that we are the dictator and rule over our wives, getting anything and everything we want. When we read on to the next part, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church, we see that there is a different side to what is meant here.
We men do not have any right to demand obedience from our wives in the sense that we initially think. When we think of how Christ loves the Church….not a building but a people, those who accept and follow Him, then we realize that we don’t need to be demanding of our wives. We are to love them to the point of being willing to die for them. This is a very unselfish type of love.
We are to love them to the point of being more interested in what is best for them rather than trying to get our way. When we love our wives like Christ loves the Church, we won’t have any problem getting love and respect in return from our wives. They will show love to us because of the love we show them.
I do believe in the marriage relationship God has put the responsibility on the man to be a leader and take responsibility for looking out for the best for his wife, but we are in no way given the right to rule over her and demand that everything go our way.
When we love like Christ loves, everything falls into proper place and we will get the love and respect back from our wives like God intended.
