In the Epistle to the Ephesians, Paul tells us that wives should “submit to their own husbands.” This, however, is not a license to subjugate women to the whims of men. In fact, teaching this is a misuse of the word of God and requires that we ignore the context of this passage.

At the risk of being accused of taking scripture out of context, I’m only including a small portion of this passage. You can however, view the section here, to see whether I’m looking at all of it.

Ephesians 5:22-23
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.

Ephesians 5:25-27
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.

Here’s the thing, though. While I’ve known for some time that this prescription for marriage relationship was much more beautiful than a man saying “do this,” I’ve never had a good understanding of how to explain it.

Enter Pastor Barbie Loflin (Twitter, Facebook, Blogger). She presented the most beautiful picture of submission and surrender in the context of a marriage that I have ever heard. Of the holy embrace of husband and wife as they work out their relationship, endeavoring to become one flesh.

There’s no way I can do her message justice. You should check out the whole thing here.