Ephesians 5:23. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body.
5:24. Therefore, just as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.
In the verses that come before this passage, we learn that we are to submit to each other, that a wife is to submit to her own husband. With all this submitting going on, we find out today that the buck stops here, with the husband. The husband is the fall guy who has to take responsibility before Jesus.
In the New King James the first word is ‘For’, it is actually a word that literally translates ‘so that’. What this means is that we really need to take into consideration what has just been said. That wives are to submit. Because the wife has submitted, the man can do his intended function. When the wife submits, which means that she is just sticking to her man, filling in all the details and defining who they are together, the man becomes the head. It is a model of Jesus himself and how the body of Christians fit together.
As Christians, we should be modeling the submissive nature of the duties of the wife. Stick to Jesus. Support and define who we are in that relationship, while he is allowed to be the head, and represent us before God.
The husband has the big role of being the head, the part of the body to represent the marriage of his union with his wife before the face of Jesus.
Jesus is the savior of the body. Husbands pay attention. Are we saving our wives? Are we rescuing them, revitalizing them? Or are we trampling and abusing them? Jesus is our model. Being the head doesn’t mean we are nnot to give anything back. If the body is sick, the head is sick. If the head chops off the body, neither will survive. If you are the head, and you’re sick, first look how to make your body well.
Verse 24 is simply a call for the model of Jesus and his relationship with the church to be reflected in the marriage relationship. Jesus is the head. Collectively we all, men and women, are his body. We are to submit to him as he returns favor and takes care of us. Jesus the head is the source of strength and honor. Men, be strong and honorable. Make your body as healthy as you can take care of it. Women, you are that body, the life support structure for the head. Both need to work together and act as a functioning unit.
The institution of marriage is a microcosm of the picture of Jesus, and what his kingdom is like. It is a single, self sustaining cell that requires a wife and a husband. Notice the lack of pairing two husbands, or two wifes. A wife has special characteristics that a husband does not have, cannot have, and will never have. Likewise for husbands having traits that a wife does not have. It takes a complete set of those elements to be a self sustaining, reproducing, and healthy unit.
A woman is not lesser, or greater than a man. Both need each other as two parts to make up a complete unit. They both have their own ways of submitting and nurturing the other.