Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. – Colossians 3:18-19

Scripture reading: Ephesians 5:21-33; Colossians 3:15, 17

Members of the body of Christ have put off the old self with its practices and put on the new self that is being renewed after the image of its Creator. Their commitment to Christ is now all that matters since it is no longer they who live, but Christ Jesus who lives in them.

What does this look like in Christian marriages? The wife will acknowledge the authority of her husband and submit to him, not because she is inferior, but because God has instituted a hierarchy where the wife follows her husband, as Paul writes: “For the husband is head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, His body, of which he is the Saviour. Now as the church is subject to Christ, so also wives should be subject to their husbands in everything” (Ephesians 5:23-24). A wife who has put on the Lord Jesus Christ and lives in Him will accept her subordinate place in this hierarchy as is fitting in the Lord.

Husbands, who have put on the Lord Jesus Christ, will love their wives. They will care for the wellbeing of their wives in a sacrificial manner like Christ did this for His body, His church. They will not become bitter and angry with their wives because they are not everything they had hoped they would be. Instead, they will let the peace of Christ rule their hearts (Col. 3:15) and give thanks to God the Father for all the good they have received in their wives (Col. 3:17).

Suggestions for prayer

Ask your heavenly Father that all husbands and wives would be given the grace to live as is fitting in the Lord.

This daily devotional is available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional. Rev. Dick Moes is pastor emeritus of the Surrey Covenant Reformed Church in Surrey, BC.