Instructions for a well-ordered household in the ancient world told the father how to manage things; he then instructed everyone in his house. But God speaks directly to wives before saying anything to their husbands. He does not address the wife through her husband. God thus holds wives responsible along with their husbands for the welfare of the household. He tells wives, literally in verse 22, “the wives to their own men as to the Lord.” The missing verb comes from the participle “submitting” in the previous verse, the last descriptor of the Spirit-filled life: “submitting to one another in the fear of God.” As to the Lord reminds wives that their marriage vows were made in God’s name, that Christ is the final rewarder, and that He is present with us in our marriages. The reason the wife submits to her man is that he is her head, since man was created before woman. The image of a body with a head makes the point that a body cannot have two heads, just as a ship cannot have two captains. How husband wife cooperate as head and body is illustrated by God’s rules concerning making and keeping vows in Numbers 30 and by the example of the vow that Hannah made. The wife should submit to her man “in everything (24)” – not to his every whim as the story of Abigail makes clear, but in the sense that she brings everything she has to the marriage. Having given her husband her own body, she can hold nothing back from him.
Featuring a sermon puts it on the front page of the site and is the most effective way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands including all mobile platforms + newsletter.
Text-Featuring a sermon is a less expensive way to bring this sermon to the attention of thousands on the right bar with optional newsletter inclusion. As low as $30/day.
Bill Edgar has been the pastor of the Broomall Reformed Presbyterian Church since 1981 and a teacher of mathematics at East High School in West Chester, Pennsylvania since 1980. He was graduated from Swarthmore College in 1968, attended the Reformed Presbyterian Theological...
