Wives submit to your husbands...

"And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. For wives, this means to submit to your husbands as to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything." Ephesians 5:21-24

Definition:

SUBMIT- verb "To defer to another's judgment, opinion, decision, etc."

I don't know about you, but the word "submit" tends to make me...uh....uncomfortable. I tend to translate it as "hand over control". Which is not an easy thing for me to do. And I think about my friends with unbelieving husbands and I think- YIKES! Does this scripture apply to them? So, in reading this, this morning my mind was screaming....BUT....BUT....WHAT IF?

WHAT IF the husband is not a Christian?

"Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives." 1 Peter 3:1

Ok....BUT.... BUT....

WHAT IF the husband is making a decision that the wife knows is against God?

"We must obey God rather than any human authority." Acts 5:29

Ok so, we must submit to the authority of our husbands, BUT NOT if it leads us into sin.

So, being submissive to our husbands does NOT mean that we are to blindly obey his every whim without ever offering an opinion ourselves. But, it DOES mean that we must be respectful of our husbands REGARDLESS of their Christian walk (or lack thereof). We should allow our husbands to be the heads of our households.

John MacArthur sums it up well:

"You have a husband who is a trial to you, either because he's unsaved or he's a disobedient believer, he fails to fulfill all of your hopes and expectations for what you would want as a husband. He comes short for what you hope for and maybe what you thought he was. And you are gravely disappointed. You chafe under his authoritarianism. He cares little for how you feel, it seems. All the more reason to be submissive, all the more reason to demonstrate to him a meekness, a purity, a respectful kind of behavior, all the more reason not only to adorn the outside and please do that, we all appreciate it, but do more than that, more than putting on a pretty dress or wearing gold jewelry or doing your hair, adorn your heart with the imperishable quality of a gentle and quiet spirit which is precious in the sight of God. And I might say every man's dream.

It doesn't mean you have to kill your personality. It doesn't mean you have to become a robot. It doesn't mean you have to become boring. It doesn't mean you never give your opinion. But there needs to be deep down in your heart gentleness, quietness, that hidden part is precious in the sight of God."

"Lord, help me to be more submissive to my husband. May I walk in your light in every instance so that I may influence and encourage his walk with You as well. Amen.