"22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. 23 For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Saviour. 24 Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, 26 that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, 27 so that he might present the church to himself in splendour, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.[a]28 In the same way husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30 because we are members of his body. 31 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.” 32 This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. 33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
Ephesians 5:22-33
The well-known teaching that Paul gives in these verses needs to be interpreted in its context in order to get the full force of his teaching. There are three things for us to note at the outset. On the one hand, what Paul says here flows from the general statement in 21, 'Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God'. It is in this connection that three concrete examples are given us in the verses that follow - in the relationship between husbands and wives, that between parents and children, and - in 6:1ff - that between masters and servants. The principle of submission is therefore 'spelt out' by the Apostle and not left in the air as a general idea floating about without any real substance or grounding. On the other hand, it is made plain that the Christian walk, which has been Paul's concern and burden in the second half of the epistle, has to do with such relationships as Paul now turns to and highlights in these verses now before us. The Christian walk is a practical thing, not belonging to any rarefied and mystical domain, but to the 'nitty-gritty' of personal relationships - in marriage, in the home, and at work. The third thing is this: Paul has just spoken in 18 about life in the fullness of the Spirit, and now he insists that the experience of the fullness of the Spirit is also not part of any mystical and exalted 'out-of-this-world' notion but a down-to-earth, practical reality, expressing itself in personal relationships at home and at work. In other words, it has to do with our behaviour in the home and at the workplace. And it asks us, 'What is your Christian testimony like at your own fireside or at the office or workbench? What would your wife say about your Christian life, what would your husband say about you, what would your boss say about you, or your colleagues?' It is all very challenging, isn't it!