Ephesians 5.22b-Wives Voluntarily Subordinating Themselves to the Lord
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Saturday September 26, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:22b-Wives Voluntarily Subordinating Themselves to the Lord
Lesson # 375
Ephesians 5:22 Wives, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it a habit of voluntarily subordinating yourselves to your own husbands as each and every one of you as a corporate unit are voluntarily subordinating yourselves to the Lord. (Lecturer’s translation)
Ephesians 5:22 is composed of the following:
(1) elliptical command: hai gynaikes tois idiois andrasin (αἱ γυναῖκες τοῖς ἰδίοις ἀνδράσιν), “Wives, each and every one of you as a corporate unit must continue to make it a habit of voluntarily subordinating yourselves to your own husbands.” (Lecturer’s translation)
(2) elliptical comparative clause: hōs tō kyriō (ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ), “as each and every one of you as a corporate unit are voluntarily subordinating yourselves to the Lord.” (Lecturer’s translation)
As was the case in Ephesians 1:2, 3, 15, 17, 2:21, 3:11, 4:1, 5, 17, 5:8, 10, 17, 19 and 20, the referent of the dative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (κύριος) here in Ephesians 5:22 is Jesus Christ.
As has been the case throughout the Ephesian epistle to this point, the noun kurios (κύριος) indicates the following about Jesus Christ:
(1) His equality with the Father and the Spirit.
(2) His joint-rulership with the Father over the entire cosmos.
(3) His highest ranking position as Chief Administrator in the divine government.
(4) His absolute sovereign authority as Ruler over all creation and every creature.
(5) His victory over the sin nature and Satan and His kingdom.
In His deity, Jesus Christ is “Lord” (See Luke 20:42).
However, in His human nature He received this title as a result of His obedience to the Father’s will, which called for Him to suffer a spiritual and physical death on the cross as a substitute for every member of the human race-past, present and future (See Philippians 2:5-11).
The noun kurios (κύριος) emphasizes the victory that Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Christ, accomplished for the believer through His spiritual and physical deaths and resurrection.
His spiritual death solved the problem of personal sins, which are produced by the sin nature through the function of human volition.
His physical death solved the problem of the sin nature, which resides in the genetic structure of the human body.
His resurrection guarantees the believer that he or she will receive a resurrection body at the rapture of the church, which will be immortal and minus the sin nature.
The particle hōs (ὡς) functions as a comparative particle, which means that it is comparing the Christian wife’s voluntary subordination to her husbands and her voluntary subordination to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
Therefore, the expression hōs tō kyriō (ὡς τῷ κυρίῳ) indicates that Christian wives must continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to their own husbands “just as they were already voluntarily subordinating themselves to the Lord.”
The referent of the dative masculine singular form of the noun kurios (κύριος) here in Ephesians 5:22 is Jesus Christ.
This is also indicated by the articular form of this word, which is anaphoric, which means that it is pointing back to the use of this word in Ephesians 5:20 indicating that it is retaining the same referent and meaning here in Ephesians 5:22.
Paul employs the figure of ellipsis a second time in this verse since in the comparative clause he is deliberately omitting the verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι), though it is implied from the immediate context.
However, this time the second person plural present middle indicative conjugation of the verb is implied in this comparative clause.
It retains the same meaning as earlier where it pertains to voluntarily subordinating oneself to another.
The contents of Ephesians 5:22-6:9 indicates that the verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι) here in Ephesians 5:22 pertains to voluntarily subordinating oneself to another in the sense of occupying a lower class, rank or position than each other.
The referent of the masculine plural form of this verb is the wives in the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia.
The second person plural form of this verb refers to these wives not only as a corporate unit but also as individuals.
The latter of which is indicated by the fact that Paul is using the distributive sense of the second person plural, which emphasizes no exceptions expressing Paul’s concern for each wife in the Christian community.
The noun noun kurios (κύριος) functions as a dative direct object indicating that the Lord Jesus Christ is receiving the action of the wives in the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia voluntarily subordinating themselves to His Lordship.
Paul puts the word in the dative rather than the accusative case because he is emphasizing the personal relationship the wives in the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia in which they are voluntarily subordinating themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ’s sovereign authority over their lives.
Thus, in this comparative clause in Ephesians 5:22, the verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι) expresses the idea of the wives in the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia “voluntarily subordinating themselves” to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
The present tense of the verb is a customary or stative present, which expresses the idea of the wives in the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia “existing in the state of” voluntarily subordinating themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ when Paul wrote this epistle.
The middle voice of the verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι) is a direct middle, which speaks of Christian wives acting upon themselves by voluntarily subordinating themselves to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.
