Chuck asked me to share some thoughts on Ephesians 5:22f from a woman’s perspective. This text deals with the subject of wifely submission. It states that wives are to be subject or submissive to their husbands. This is not a popular topic 
today. Many women rebel against the idea and many men have given them good reason. But God has a better idea. The word “submit” is a military command that means “to line up under.” It does not mean inferiority. It speaks of function and not status. It addresses how we are to relate to one another. It is a voluntary acceptance of the headship of the husband. God created this marital order so that we could have happy homes.
In the movie, “What Women Really Want,” actor Mel Gibson plays a chauvinistic advertising executive who has an accident that makes it possible for him to hear women’s thoughts. If husbands could actually hear what their wives really want, they would discover that wives want husbands they can look up to, whose judgment they can respect and whose leadership they can respond to. There is hardly a wife who wants a man she can boss around. Granted, wives are sinners just like their husbands on the subject of mastery and we will fight for our own way. But, deep inside, what wives really want is a husband who will rule over them and their home–gently and with love.
Submission is God’s idea. He ordained it in Genesis 3:16 when He told Eve, “Your desire will be for your husband and he will rule over you.” This verse is often called, “Eve’s Curse” because it is one of the terrible consequences of the fall. However; wifely submission is only a curse if we wives seek to rule our homes. Marriage is a tender partnership. Ladies, if you are failing in this area, and we all do, don’t think the situation is hopeless. This is never the case for the Christian. Make a fresh commitment today to line up under God’s standard.
Kathy Larsen