Ephesians 5:24 - A Beautiful Picture

"But rather as the assembly is being subjected to Christ, thus also the women to the men in everything."

-Everything.  The wife is to be ranking herself under her husband in everything.  She is again not by any means any less vital or valuable to the functioning of the whole - without the body or the head there is not a thing, not a living organism at all, but the head is (to be) in charge.  Always.  In everything.  The wife needs to do whatever she can in every instance to help her husband call the ball.  That doesn’t mean run on ahead of him or pester him like a leaky faucet until I get my way, what I want.  Easier by far to badger and bully and boss him around, or run on ahead or perhaps go behind his back, or simply to stand back and do nothing at all.  No, God’s way will likely be more inconvenient, more inefficient, more humbling.  Yes, it requires massive doses of divinely-sourced humility.  It might involve gentle, respectful nudging.  Or it might look like beautiful long-suffering, patiently trusting the Head of the man to work in and through this imperfect spouse who is all-too-prone to either to harsh dictatorial rule or to silence and passivity.  No, this is not an easy ask.  It is likely to feel unnatural, counter-intuitive, contrary to my natural instincts.  As a woman, my (fallen) desire is to dominate within marriage, to dominate (and thus disrespect) my husband.  But it should not be this way.

-Everything.  Not one thing is excepted.  Practically speaking this winds up being more of a lofty-yet-totally-attainable goal, a beacon, a destination on the horizon towards which the wife is constantly aiming and redirecting herself by the grace and power of God.  The goal is a constant and growing attitude of deference and respect, a beautiful gentleness towards this one whom God designed and assigned to me as my pefect life partner.  Yes, the husband has a part to play as well - next section.  But that is not the wife’s responsibility - she is only responsible for how she conducts herself, and as she lives into this life, as she embraces this role and attitude which God uniquely designed for her, she helps give the world a beautiful picture of how the Church, the Bride of Christ, should relate to her glorious Groom.