Man of the House

I have talked to many men who allow their wives to govern the household and just succumb to the control of their spouse.  Sure, it looks like order, smells like order, and seems like order, but the bottom line is it’s not order.  “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death”.  Am I saying a man is going to physically die because he allows his wife to have control?  Of course not, but what is being conveyed is that everything that should and could have life in that house does not because the divine order of God is not being followed.

Brothers, some of you can attest to the fact that the word “submit” is a curse word in the eyes of some women.  If you catch some women on the wrong day and utter that “four-letter word“, you will add about 8 more hours to a 24-hour day.  Some of you know what I’m talking about.  On the other side of the coin some of us men need to get the proper understanding of the word “submit” as well.  Don’t equate the word submit to your wife hopping on one leg and barking like a dog at the snap of your fingers.  That will add 10 more hours to a 24-hour day.

When we deal with submission of the husband and wife, the letter to the church at Ephesus is one of the best letters in the Bible to get an understanding of what is meant.  Ephesians 5:21 begins our understanding with, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.”  There is a submission of both the husband and the wife, therefore brothers; the Word is for us too.

As we read further Paul elaborates on what submitting “one to another” means, he begins with the wives (women), letting them know that the husband is the head of the wife and how wives are to be subject to the husbands as the church is subject to Christ.  Then he elaborates to the men, how we are to love our wives with the same love Christ showed the church; He gave up his life for the church.  We are to love our wives as we love our own bodies and when we love our wives we are actually loving ourselves.  In verse 33, he sums everything up, “So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.”