Ephesians 5:22

Reflection

This verse has long been misread, as if submission meant one person bowing under another. Yet just before it, Paul writes that we are to submit to one another. The submission here is not being trampled — it is one direction of a relationship where two people give themselves away.

The phrase "as to the Lord" matters. The husband is not the standard; the Lord stands over the whole relationship. This is not a call to bind one person to another without limit, but a pointer to a deeper trust that holds them both.

Bring to mind your closest relationship today. Where is the small place you could set yourself aside and meet the other first? Love deepens when we stop counting who goes first.