Wives Submit to Your Husbands

During the straw pole debates, an interviewer asked Presidential Canidate, Michele Bachmann a question. "You are an evangelical Christian and the Bible says - wives submit to your husbands. As President will you submit to your husband?"

I have longed struggled with this passage of the Bible even though I have remained single for many years. I could not - or perhaps would not - believe that God meant for women to obey their husbands in everything or submit as a dog does to its master. I always believed that women were the soul of the earth and therefore mighty in their own right.

The answer from Congresswoman Bachmann brought me to a new revelation on submission. "Perhaps sir, you do not understand the meaning of this Bible verse. Submit means respect. I respect my husband and he respects me. We have pledged our lives together during sickness and health, richer and poorer until death do us part."

Although her answer moved me to the right ball field, the home run required a little more contemplation. The verse following wives submitting to their husbands states, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself."

God created men and women differently. He breathed life into Adam through his head and created Eve from the side (or heart) of Adam. Men want to be respected. It is the most important emotion for men. Women want to be loved - this is their most important emotion.

What God was saying in Ephesians 5 is - give to your husband what is most important to him and husbands - give to your wife what is most important to her.