Click here to watch my video reflection on our text for today, or keep reading for my written reflections: 

Today’s reading is from Ephesians 5: 21-32: 

21 Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ.

22 Wives, be subject to your husbands as you are to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife just as Christ is the head of the church, the body of which he is the Savior. 24 Just as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives ought to be, in everything, to their husbands.

25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 in order to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water by the word, 27 so as to present the church to himself in splendor, without a spot or wrinkle or anything of the kind—yes, so that she may be holy and without blemish. 28 In the same way, husbands should love their wives as they do their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hates his own body, but he nourishes and tenderly cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.” 32 This is a great mystery, and I am applying it to Christ and the church.

I deeply love the Bible.  I love the teachings of the Bible. I love the truths of the Bible. I love the Bible so much.  But one of the things that is so important when understanding the Bible is to read it properly and read it in context. When the Bible is not read in context or taken out of context it can do great harm. Remember the Devil tempted Jesus by taking the Bible out of context (Matthew 4:1-11).  Today’s reading is one that has been taken out of context by some and caused great harm.  

Today we read this, wives be subject to (or submit) to your husbands.  When this passage is read only in this verse, this is a passage that can lead to some bad and destructive situations.  I believe in the truth taught here, that yes, wives should submit to their husbands. BUT, look at what we see in verse 21 – be subject to one another.  

Look what we see in verse 25 – husbands love your wives as Christ loves the church. How did Chrsit love the chruch?  He laid aside HIs life and He died for the church.  He set the example of loving the church by washing the feet of the disciples.  He loved the Church in that He died for the freedom of the church. 

This passage is a call to mutual submission. Each side within the marriage laying down their wants, their desires, their everything for the good of the marriage and the good of the other person. Verse 21 is the key to understanding this passage. Mutual submission. Each side loving the other more than they love themselves, each said wanting what was best for the other more than they want what is best for themselves.  

No one lording over the other.  There is only one Lord for our families.  Jesus.  This is about each of us, husbands and wives mutually submitting for what is best for families.  

When we live our this mutual submission for the good of our families, then we are truly living out the Gospel for the good of the world.  

May we love each other more than we love ourselves.  May the world see Jesus in us and through us and through our marriages and families.  

Monday, we’ll look at Ephesians 6: 1-4.

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