21 And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word. 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.
31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.” 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
Relationships
I’ve preached a four part series on this passage alone. You’d think I’d break this up into a week’s worth of Oil Changes. And yet, here I am, putting it all in one day’s devotional.
I’m doing it intentionally. I want us to focus on the overall point of this passage: we are called to submit to one another. To serve each other. To love one another. To put those around us ahead of ourselves.
Look, it’s not rocket science. God’s ways are different than the world’s ways. At times, his ways will offend the world. How can we expect it to not offend? God talks about dying to our own desires. To giving away our lives for the sake of his purpose. Of trusting him and thanking him even when we experience trials and struggles.
It takes faith to do things God’s way. Extreme faith. And so, yes, those who have no faith will be offended by God’s ways. No kidding.
And I believe that’s why people get all bent out of shape when it comes to relationships. Especially to the role of husbands and wives. Of course, it doesn’t help when Christians teach things that are simply not in the Bible. But, that’s for another day.
Again, the bottom line is this: we are called to submit first to God, and second to each other. If you’re not doing that, you’re missing the point completely.
My prayer: Lord, you’ve called me to submit to my family. To serve them. To place the needs of my wife and my children ahead of my own. To love them unconditionally. To give of myself for their sake. Help me to do that each and every day. And not just for them. Help me to serve each and every person you bring across my path. Amen.
Until tomorrow.
