“Because the Lord was witness to the covenant between you and the wife of your youth, to whom you have been faithless, though she is your companion and your wife by covenant…” (Malachi 2:14)

Follow God’s example, therefore, as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Be very careful, then, how you live; not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is. Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Hup-a-tass-omi “Does not mean so much ‘to obey,’ though this may result from self-subordination; or to do the will of someone, but rather: ‘To lose or surrender one’s own rights or will’ Gerhard Delling, in the Theological Dictionary of the NT

This is foundational to everything. Everybody submits at some level. We all submit to each other. We all submit to the elders. We all submit to the government. As wives, you submit to your husbands. As husbands, there’s a way in which you submit to your wives. Children submit to parents, but parents also submit to children. It’s mutual. There is a kind of submission, a spiritual care that characterizes all of us in all our relationships. John McArthur

Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like- minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit.

Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.

Paul is sharing a counter- cultural, radical way for men to love, respect and surrender to their wives.

Jesus was the head of the church, yet he gave Himself up for the church

“Throughout our study of Paul’s instructions to the Christian husband, the terms for ‘leader,’ ‘leadership,’ and ‘authority’ have not been mentioned. The key word which sums up Paul’s exhortation for husbands is not ‘leadership’ but ‘love.” Bob Deffinbaugh, pastor/teacher, THM Dallas Theological Seminary

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be their husbands in everything.

Submission, in all its expressions, is a reflection and outworking of our submission to Christ.

Willingness is key in submission. submission cannot be demanded, coerced, or manipulated

Mathematics Of Marriage = 1 Man + Woman + Jesus = Marriage