Ephesians 5:22-24

This is a conversation I had with an Australian in response to the video of Mark Driscoll yelling at the men of his congregation who mistreat their wives. Click Here for the video.

ElectricG said,

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything." (Ephesians 5:22-24)

How does this guy have the nerve to suggest that Christianity is in favor of the rights of women?

He asked someone to explain this, so I didn't hesitate to take up the challenge.



My Response
Read the whole chapter, and the chapter before it, and after it. Read 1 Corinthians 7:1-16 which was a follow up from the previous chapter where he talked about sexual immorality. The same in Ephesians chapter 5. This chapter is asking couples to walk in love, especially the men. What does verse 25 say? "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her."

Keep reading!

About "submission," the text isn't meant for a man to use for his pleasure and abuse a woman like a dog. But it is written to women telling them to respect their man (who is Christian). Look at how Jesus commands us to live. The man is asked to LOVE his wife. He is to be a man that lays down his life for her. That is the man a women would respect. God made both man and woman differently with roles, but they're one flesh.

Also, You have to isolate the context here. He is talking about married couples. If we were to take this verse out of context it could be dangerously abused.

Never read one verse. Read the whole passage and surrounding passages to understand what is being said in these verses.
The author is talking about being submitted to only one man. The Ephesians must have been having problems with instruction about marriage (It's Greek culture). So he gives the example of Jesus with the church.

God knows what is in man and He didn't have to ask a woman to love because He knows a woman will.

We have to also remember who the author is writing the letter to, in what culture, in what time.


P.S. She'll love him no matter what. The man has to learn to love. Love like Jesus.