Married Woman

Ok. Most of you have probably heard of the language “wives submit unto your husbands”. Right? Well, most people leave out very important parts so I want to provide the full text and I will break it down from there. This passage comes from Ephesians Chapter 5 verses 22 through 33:

22 Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. 23 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. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her 26 to make her holy, cleansing[a] her by the washing with water through the word, 27 and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. 28 In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— 30 for we are members of his body. 31 “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”[b] 32 This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. 33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

Point 1. God wants all the married women to be obedient and submit. Another word for submit is to yield, harvest, and accept. However, your very first act is not being obedient to your husband but obedient to GOD.

Point 2. Submission is not permission for abuse. Let’s look at verses 25 through 33 and read everything out loud. Your husband should love and adore you the exact same way God loves and adores you. In this section God provides multiple analogies/comparisons regarding how your husband should be treating you. God went as far as to say in verse 28,” In this same way, husband’s ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.” If your husband does not love you like God describes then that man is a fraud, not your husband. If your husband does not love himself (won’t take care of himself, lack of personal hygiene, not eating right etc.) then how do you expect him to love you?

Point 3. Just because you decided to get married does not mean that God approves. Go back and read verses 29 through 33! The husband and wife leave their families to begin their own journeys and legacies. They become one; very integral parts to one another. Very much how your body cannot fully function without the eyes, or limbs, or brain. All parts are needed for the human to be fully functional at 100%. This is the same with the relationship between husband and wife…they work in unity, in tandem with another. No matter how complicated and hard life happens around them…they work together to accomplish the goals that God has set before them.

In summary, I want my married couples to know that marriage is hard. If our relationship with God isn’t easy, then why would our relationship with our spouses be any different? It takes work from both parties to have a successful marriage. And success does not mean everything is perfect; it means that both parties decided to put in the work to allow their marriage to grow in ways they never thought imaginable.