This Scripture Is Not For Men

I once heard a preacher say that Ephesians 5:22 was not for men. And it isn't. It's not for a man to use as a reminder to his wife that she should listen to and obey him. Now wait a minute - keep reading, please . . .

This passage in Ephesians is stunning in the responsibility it lays on a man. The married woman has it quite easy in comparison with the responsibility placed on the husband. After all, all she has to do is submit (more on this in a bit). The man must love his wife "just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her." The man is the one who must die, who must love when none is returned, who must give up everything for the sake and safety of his wife. The man's place is to protect, comfort, secure and save (physically, emotionally) the wife! And that, of course, is completely like Christ, isn't it? A man must die to his selfishness, machismo and loner-proneness and use his power as the stronger partner to protect and preserve the weaker one.

Now, with a husband like that, wouldn't it be easy for a wife to submit? Wouldn't that make it a delight for a woman to trust, follow and depend on that man - just as the Church finds it delightful to trust, follow and depend on her bridegroom Christ?

Alright men, let's get to it.

Ephesians 5:22-33
Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior. Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.