To hear the way many people talk about it, chapter 5, verse 22 is the most important verse in the book of Ephesians. Everything before it is just warm-up material. Four and a half rambling chapters about grace, salvation, unity, reconciliation, holiness, forgiveness, humility, and the work of the Spirit, but we all know that stuff is secondary. The reason the letter to the Ephesians was written is to emphasize this: wives, submit.
It makes perfect sense to treat the entire epistle as a delivery system for that one line. Chapter 1 is a long-winded way of saying “wives need to know their place.” Chapter 2 is touching story about Jews and Gentiles becoming one new humanity so long as everyone understands that wives still submit. In Chapter 3, Paul prays for spiritual strength because you’re going to need supernatural power to keep focusing on Ephesians 5:22 without getting sidetracked by all the thoughts connected to it.
Chapter 4 is especially distracting because it explains how the church is one body with many parts, all submitting to each other in humility, gentleness, and love. We should make every effort to ignore that confusing mutual stuff since it threatens the clarity of our favorite submission verse.
Chapter 5 opens with instructions for everyone to imitate God, walk in love, avoid sin, live wisely, be filled with the Spirit, sing together, give thanks always, and submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. All very interesting. None of it essential.
Because then comes verse 22. The payoff! The reason pastors skip to verse 25, husbands use highlighters, and feminists rise up for battle. “Wives, submit to your husbands.” Finally, something actionable. At long last, after pages of miscellaneous musing, the obvious main point of the book of Ephesians (and possibly the entire New Testament).
It would be irresponsible to mention that verse 22 doesn’t even have its own verb in the Greek, borrowing it directly from the mutual submission of verse 21. And it’s unnecessary to mention that husbands are instructed to love their wives the way Christ loved the church, which involved dying, serving, sacrificing, without malice, or prideful oppression since that’s a sermon that we hear regularly.
Much better to isolate Ephesians 5:22, frame it, and treat it as the prime directive for Christianity. Wives submitting to husbands is the point. Grace is the preface. Unity is background noise. The Spirit is there to help wives comply cheerfully. The gender neutral verses can be discarded.
After all, if Ephesians were really about all Christians submitting to one another, dying to self, and imitating Christ’s self-giving love, then women wouldn’t have anything special to be upset about. And abusive men wouldn’t have an excuse to oppress their wives. And where’s the fun in that?
(Ephesians 5:22) Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
