Ephesians 5.22-The Command in Ephesians 5.22 is Interpreted By the Contents of Ephesians 5.18-21
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Tuesday September 29, 2026
Ephesians Series: Ephesians 5:22-The Command in Ephesians 5:22 is Interpreted By the Contents of Ephesians 5:18-21
Lesson # 376
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)
The elliptical command in Ephesians 5:22 must be interpreted by the contents of Ephesians 5:18-21 or in other words, we must interpret the command in the former in light of the assertion in the latter.
As we noted in our study of Ephesians 5:21, this verse is composed of a result clause, which asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of this letter, must continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another.
This result clause is modified by a prepositional phrase, which presents the reason for this result clause.
It asserts that this voluntary subordination of oneself to one’s fellow believer is based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
Like the assertions in Ephesians 5:19-20, this assertion in Ephesians 5:21 presents another result of the recipients of this letter obeying Paul’s Spirit apostolic command in Ephesians 5:18, which required that they continue to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by means of Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching in this letter.
The result presented in Ephesians 5:21 is in addition to the previous three presented in Ephesians 5:19-20.
In our study of verse 19, we noted that this verse makes two assertions, which are the result of obeying the command in Ephesians 5:18.
The first assertion states that obedience to this command will result in the recipients of this letter continuing to make it their habit of communicating with one another by means of psalms, hymns as well as spiritual songs.
The second assertion states that obedience to this command will result in the recipients of this letter continuing to make it their habit of singing and specifically continuing to make it your habit of making music with their hearts for the benefit of the Lord.
The participle result clause in Ephesians 5:20 asserts that each and every one of the recipients of this epistle as a corporate unit must continue to make it their habit of always expressing thanks to the one and only God, namely the Father.
It too presents another result of the recipients of this letter obeying Paul’s Spirit apostolic command in Ephesians 5:18, which required that they continue to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by means of Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching in this letter.
The participial result clause in Ephesians 5:20 is modified by two prepositional phrases.
The first presents the reason why the recipients of this letter were continuing to make it their habit of always expressing thanksgiving to God the Father and they did so because of each and every circumstance, which they have experienced in life as a Christian.
The second prepositional phrase presents the basis in which they approach the Father in prayer to thank Him for each and every circumstance they experienced in life as a Christian, which were designed to benefit their spiritual growth and they could do so based upon the merits of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So therefore, the participial result clause in Ephesians 5:21 asserts that the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia, who were the recipients of this letter must continue to make it their habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to one another based upon their reverential respect for the self-sacrificial love the Lord Jesus Christ displayed on behalf of them at the cross.
Like the participles in Ephesians 5:19-20, the participle here in Ephesians 5:21 presents another result of the recipients of this letter obeying Paul’s Spirit apostolic command in Ephesians 5:18, which required that they continue to make it their habit of permitting themselves to be influenced by means of Paul’s Spirit inspired teaching in this letter.
The contents of Ephesians 5:19-20 indicates that the verb hupotassomai (ὑποτάσσομαι) in Ephesians 5:21 pertains to voluntarily subordinating oneself to another in the sense of occupying a lower class, rank or position than each other.
Thus, the verb expresses the idea of the members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia continuing to voluntarily subordinate themselves to one another in the sense of placing themselves in a lower class, rank or position than each other for the purpose of ministering or serving each other.
This is exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did during His First Advent by becoming a human being in order to serve all of sinful humanity by living a life a perfect obedience under the law for all of sinful humanity as well as suffering the wrath of God as substitute for them in order that they would not have suffer the wrath of God for all of eternity in the lake of fire.
The members of the Gentile Christian community in the Roman province of Asia were to voluntarily subordinate themselves to one another by self-sacrificially serving one another.
They were to do this by exercising their spiritual gifts, which function when they obey the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to self-sacrificially love another as He self-sacrificially loved all of them at the cross when they were His enemies (cf. Rom. 5:6-8).
So therefore, if we compare the contents of Ephesians 5:18-21 with the contents of Ephesians 5:22-24, we can see that both husbands and wives were to be influenced by Paul’s Spirit inspired apostolic teaching, which results in both husbands and wives speaking to one another by means of psalms, hymns as well as spiritual songs so that they would sing.
Specifically, by continuing to make music with their hearts for the benefit of the Lord.
Obedience to the command to be influenced by the Spirit would also result in both husbands and wives expressing thanks to the Father.
Lastly, it would also result in both husbands and wives voluntarily subordinating themselves to each other.
Thus, when the wife is commanded in Ephesians 5:22 to continue to make it a habit of voluntarily subordinating herself to her husband, she will already be doing this because of obeying the command in Ephesians 5:18 to be influenced by the Spirit.
This we noted will result in both wife and husband voluntarily subordinating themselves to each other according to Ephesians 5:21.
The husband is to voluntarily subordinate himself to his wife by self-sacrificially loving her the way Christ self-sacrificially love both he and his wife.
This would be accomplished by both husband and wife obeying the Lord Jesus Christ’s Spirit inspired command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to love one another as He has loved the believer.
The Lord voluntarily subordinated Himself to the Father’s will the church age believer and all of sinful humanity by becoming a human being in order to serve all of sinful humanity.
He did this by living a life of perfect obedience, which sinners have no capacity whatsoever to do and He suffered the wrath of God in the place of all of sinful humanity in order they would not suffer the wrath of God in the lake of fire forever.
Therefore, both husband and his wife in Christian marriage are to both fulfill their roles in marriage by voluntarily subordinating themselves to each other by obeying the Lord’s command to love one another as He has loved them at the cross.
When the husband voluntarily subordinates himself to his wife, it will prevent the husband from abusing his authority, which was delegated to him by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Correspondingly, when the wife voluntarily subordinates herself to her own husband’s authority, it will prevent the wife from being insubordinate to her husband’s delegated authority.
Voluntarily subordinating themselves to each other by loving one another like Christ loved both of them will reflect the relationship between each member of the Trinity and thus glorify God by manifesting His love with their marriage relationship.
So therefore, this what Paul means when he commands the wives in the Christian community here in Ephesians 5:22 to continue to make it a habit of voluntarily subordinating themselves to their own husbands as they were already voluntarily subordinating themselves to the Lord.
In other words, when Christian wives voluntarily subordinate themselves to their own husbands, it manifest their voluntarily subordination to the Lord Jesus Christ.
In fact, when church age believers voluntarily subordinate themselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, they will also voluntary subordinate themselves to each other.
Consequently, the wife will voluntarily subordinate herself to her husband and vice versa, the children will do so in relation to their parents and vice versa and the slave will also voluntary subordinate themselves to their slave masters and vice versa.
Husbands, parents and slave masters were to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ exercising their delegated authority by voluntarily subordinating themselves to those under their authority.
This would be accomplished by obeying the Lord’s command in John 13:34 and 15:12 to self-sacrificially love one another as He has self-sacrificially loved them.
It is very important that the reader understand that the Christian wife’s voluntary subordination to the authority delegated by the Lord to her husband is limited in the sense that she is not obligated to say or do anything which is against the will of God.
In other words, if her husband orders or tells her to break the law or commit any sin, then she is biblically justified to disobey her husband.
Like Ephesians 5:22, Colossians 3:18 addresses the responsibility of Christian women in relation to their husbands.
Colossians 3:18 Wives, each of you must continue to make it your habit of voluntarily submitting yourselves to your husbands because it has always been an appropriate obligation in agreement with the will of the Lord. (Lecturer’s translation)
