Christ and His Church
Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.
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.
My Understanding: The word “submit” means to yield one’s own rights to the will, needs, and/or to the authority of another. I know of no greater example of submission than that of Jesus Christ, and as recorded in Philippians 2. Jesus is God the Son. He lived in heaven, yet he did not hold on to his right to retain his heavenly position or his equality with God, but he willingly came to earth, took on human flesh, became a servant, and he humbled himself and became obedient to death on a cross. We also learn in Hebrews 5 that Jesus’ prayers were heard by his Father in heaven because of his reverent submission, and that he learned obedience from what he suffered, and once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him.
When Jesus died on the cross, he took upon himself the sins of the entire world. He crucified and buried our sins with him in death, but then he was resurrected back to life in conquering death, hell, Satan and sin so that we could go free from the power of sin over our lives. Jesus Christ willingly gave up his life for us because he loves us so much. He died, not just so we could go to be with him in heaven one day, and not just so we could escape the ultimate penalty of sin, which is eternal punishment in hell, but he died for our sins so that we could be free of the control of sin over our lives on a day-to-day basis. He died to make us holy (set apart for God), to transform our lives on a daily basis through his word, to mature us in Christ, to make us to where the light of Christ shines through our lives, to sanctify us and purify us, and to make us into obedient servants of Christ.
This relationship between Christ and his church (his bride) is illustrated for us through this picture of what a marriage should be like. We, as the bride of Christ, should submit to our Lord in everything. We must yield what we believe are our own rights and wills to the will of God over our lives. Our lives are no longer our own to live them as we choose, but we willingly yield to God’s will for our lives, and we choose to do what he desires of us.
We must show honor and respect to God/Jesus Christ in everything we do. Because of what Jesus Christ did for us in dying for our sins, we owe him our lives. He did not die on the cross for our sins so that we could continue to go our own way; so we could continue to do what we want; and so we could continue to live selfish lives and sinful lifestyles. He came to set us free from all that. And, we should love, honor and respect him enough for all that he did for us, that we should yield our entire lives over to him and to his will for our lives.
My Jesus, I Love Thee / William R. Featherstone / Adoniram J. Gordon
My Jesus, I love thee, I know thou art mine;
for thee all the follies of sin I resign.
My gracious Redeemer, my Savior art thou;
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I love thee because thou hast first loved me,
and purchased my pardon on Calvary's tree;
I love thee for wearing the thorns on thy brow;
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
I’ll love Thee in life, I will love Thee in death,
And praise Thee as long as Thou lendest me breath;
And say, when the death-dew lies cold on my brow,
If ever I loved Thee, my Jesus, ‘tis now.
In mansions of glory and endless delight;
I'll ever adore thee in heaven so bright;
I'll sing with the glittering crown on my brow;
if ever I loved thee, my Jesus, 'tis now.
Husbands and Wives
Yet, even though Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit (God-breathed words), stated that he was speaking about Christ and his church, he was also teaching us about marriage. Wives are to submit to their husbands as they submit to Christ. Christ is not going to ask his bride to sin against God, so this submission never includes submitting to sin. Wives are to yield their rights and wills to their husbands, just as they yield their rights and wills to Christ, i.e. in the same manner and under the same authority and will for their lives.
Yet, this is not a one-sided submission. Just as Christ loved his bride enough to submit himself to die on the cross for our sins, so the husband must willingly give up his own rights in order to lead his wife spiritually. He, also, must consider his wife as though she is part of his own body, and he must care for her as he would care for himself. He must leave the authority of his parents and their desires for his life, and he must be united to his wife as though they are one flesh. This is speaking of self-sacrificial love.
I pray today that the Lord Jesus would continually teach me what it means to love him and to submit to him, and that he will also persist in teaching me what it means to submit to my husband, to love him, and to respect him, as to the Lord. My heart’s desire is to obey my Lord in all things, so I pray he continues to cleanse my heart through the teaching of his word, as he reveals to me where I need to change, and that he makes me into one who reflects his light and his love to all others.
My heart’s desire is also to be the wife to my husband that he needs me to be and that the Lord desires for me to be, so I pray today that the Lord Jesus would reveal to me any areas of my heart that need to be changed with regard to this submission to my husband as to the Lord, so that I am honoring, valuing, respecting and loving my husband in the way God desires and that my husband needs, because I love my husband so very much. Lord, teach me today what you want me to learn with regard to submission to my husband, and convict my heart of any ways in which I am not honoring, respecting, loving and submitting to him and to his authority as unto the Lord. In Jesus’ name I pray these things. Amen!
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