Lord willing, today we will wrap up the discussion we started a few weeks ago on Ephesians 5:22. I hope you have been following our posts. If not, you can quickly catch up by scrolling down to see the earlier ones.

Ephesians 5:22 says,

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”

Last time, we ended by explaining how a wife’s submission to her husband is not absolute like her submission to God. It is limited by righteousness. If the husband leads in unrighteousness, the wife must not follow him.

We have now covered most of the major points we wanted to share from this verse. But before we move on to Ephesians 5:23, we want to close verse 22 with one more important truth.

As we often say, when studying any verse, we must keep in mind the whole counsel of the word of God. We cannot fully understand a verse by isolating it from the rest of Scripture. It is a tragic mistake to conclude the truth of God’s word based on just one verse or passage.

The Bible says,

“The righteous shall live by his faith.” (Habakkuk 2:4b ESV)

In the context of marriage, a wife’s submission to her husband is one way she shows her love for Christ by obeying His word by faith:

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.”

Jesus said,

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” (John 14:15 ESV)

If we love Jesus, we obey Him. If we do not love Him, we reject His word. It’s as simple as that. There is no such thing as loving Jesus while living however we want.

A wife glorifies God and shows her love for Christ when she obeys this command by faith. Living without faith—trying to obey God without faith—is just living in the flesh.

“For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23b ESV)

Faith always expresses itself in action. Without action, faith is dead (James 2:26).

Faith is “the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1 ESV)

What is a wife’s hope when she submits to her husband? She hopes that God will reward her obedience—both in this life and in the life to come. Her daily life in marriage reflects her conviction about the unseen but ever-present God. She obeys, trusting in the Sovereign Lord who created all things.

This conviction in action is called faith.

We are not talking about worldly positive thinking here—like “believe in yourself” or “you can do it.”

No, this faith is the conviction that is planted in a wife’s heart when she reads, studies, meditates on, and memorizes the word of God, because

“faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:17 ESV)

A wife’s submission to her husband is faith in action—faith that works through love: love for Christ, and love for her husband.

Obedience without love is dead (1 Corinthians 13:1–3).

Paul writes,

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love.” (Galatians 5:6 ESV)

So, what is the main point of today’s message?

It is this:

— A wife finds the grace and faith to obey God’s word, including the call to submit to her husband, through the word of God alone.

A woman who drifts away from the word of God will soon find herself unable to submit to either God or her husband. She becomes, by default, an enemy of God—and an enemy of the good gifts God has given her: her marriage (called by John MacArthur, “the grace of life”), her family, her children, and even her own life. . . . cont’d ///