Therefore as the church is subject to Christ: so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things.
αλλ ωσπερ η εκκλησια υποτασσεται τω χριστω ουτως και αι γυναικες τοις ιδιοις ανδρασιν εν παντι
10 Church Fathers comment on this verse
Thus he set before husband and wife mutual love and care as the foundation of their happiness. He assigned to each the proper sphere: to him authority and solicitude, and to her obedience. Therefore, as the Church, composed of men and women, is subject to Christ, so wives must be subject to their husbands as to God.
From this you will understand more clearly what he said above: be subject to your husbands as to the Lord. Since wives must be subject to their husbands as the Church is to Christ, and since wives also make up the Church, a wife must be subject to her husband as to Christ. But in what manner? Does he command obedience always? Even when the husband is inclined toward unbelief? Yet Paul is not now speaking about unbelieving husbands, but about believing ones, to whom, without doubt, he was writing.
As the love of the Church is a matter of the heart, and not of outward appearance or face, so let the wife love her husband. And as the Church has no other Christ in place of the true Christ, so let the wife have no other husband in place of her lawful husband.
“But as the Church is subject to Christ, so also wives to their own husbands in everything.” The Church of Christ is glorious, having no stain or defect or anything of the kind.
Therefore a sinner, or one defiled by any impurity, cannot be called a son of the Church (de Ecclesia) or be considered obedient to Christ.
But just as it is possible for the Church, which once had stain or blemish, later to be brought to youthful innocence and purity, so let the sinner flee to the Physician. For the healthy have no need of a physician, but the sick.
Then his wounds will be healed, and he will again belong to the Church, which is His body.
He also speaks to the Ephesians with sufficient refinement and caution: “As the Church is subject to Christ, so also wives to their husbands.”
Indeed, if the wife must be subject to the husband as the Church is to Christ, then the union between husband and wife will be holy. They will never be subject to the passions of the body.
Therefore, if anyone sets against us what is written to the Corinthians, that the husband should render to the wife her due, and the wife to the husband (1 Cor 7:3), let him note the great difference between Corinthians and Ephesians.
The word is written to the former as to those fed with milk and as to infants. Among them arose disagreements and divisions. Among them was heard of fornication such as was not even among the Gentiles.
Therefore a concession is made to them, so that after prayer they might return and not be held under Satan’s power. Yet even there he says that he grants this not willingly, but by concession.
The Ephesians, among whom he spent three years and to whom he disclosed all the holy things of Christ, are formed differently.
Therefore each has complete freedom of will, whether to follow the Corinthians or the Ephesians and be saved either by the bondage of the Corinthians or by the freedom of the Ephesians.
The Savior says, “Woe to those who bear children and nurse in that day” (Lk 21:23), that is, on the day of judgment, which is properly the day of the wedding feast.
Therefore one must strive in every way to imitate the Ephesians more zealously than the Corinthians.
One must not be caught unawares, as in the time of the flood, in buying, selling, or marriage unions. Rather, one must hold burning lamps in one’s hands (Mt 24).
The Church took her beginning from Christ, and therefore she is subject to Him. In like manner, the wife must be subject to the husband. The difference, however, is this: the wife has the same nature as the husband, while the Church can share in Christ only by name, not by nature.
As one who gives law to the pious, the Apostle added, “in everything.” The example set forth shows that he gives this law to the pious. No one nurtured in piety prefers what is his own to what is God’s.
The particular Christian duties of husband and wife concern the mystery of Christian marriage (Eph 5:22-23).
Wives must obey their own husbands (Eph 5:22-24), “as to the Lord,” that is, for the Lord’s sake, according to St. Chrysostom.
Since “the husband is the head of the wife” (Gen 3:16), as Christ is the Head of the Church, and He is the Savior of the body, that is, of His Church, then “as the Church obeys Christ, so wives should obey their husbands in everything,” meaning in every good thing.
What kind of obedience, then, is commanded to Christian wives? Not slavish and forced obedience, but obedience “as to the Lord.” It is sincere and heartfelt, flowing from reverence for the Lord God Himself.
He established precisely these marital relations, and no others. In the union of marriage He assigned the wife the second place after the husband.
How should the husband’s headship in Christian marriage be understood? Only as primacy, which is inevitable in every union and society consisting of several persons.
It is not domination, nor superiority in rights that weighs upon those subject to it.
The husband is the natural head, or first member, in the marital union because the chief burden of marital duties rests upon him. The wife cannot bear these, given the relative tenderness of her nature and the weakness of her physical powers.
The holy Apostle Paul makes very clear the idea of such caring and loving headship in the man.
Being the Head of the body, His Church, what else is Christ for it? He is also the Savior of this body. So too the husband is head of the wife because he is bound to be her caretaker.
Therefore it would be not only groundless, but plainly imprudent, for her to seek equality with her husband. In that case, unbearable burdens of life would fall equally upon her shoulders together with his.
Thus, in the apostolic words about the husband’s headship over the wife, one hears no diminution of woman’s rights. On the contrary, one hears their safeguarding and defense. For men, one hears the instruction of the duties that flow from their headship.
Husbands must love their wives (Eph 5:25), first, with fidelity, “as Christ also loved the Church and gave Himself for her.”
In setting forth particular rules of life according to each state, the Apostle first introduces the general principle that makes these relations good: the fear of God and obedience, not self-will.
He then dwells in detail on the ordering of family relations, beginning with husband and wife. Their highest pattern is shown in Christ’s relation to the Church, of which He is the Head.
So too the husband must be the head of the wife, and the wife must be in subjection, as the Church obeys Christ.
According to the explanation of Bishop Theophan, “not to have one’s own will is the root law in mutual Christian relations. How to fulfill this commandment is the matter of Christian wisdom. Yet it is beyond doubt that he who sacrifices himself and his own for others never loses, if he does all this in the fear of God.”
Then, applying this principle of Christian life first of all to the wife, St. John Chrysostom says: “The Apostle began with wives either because ‘be subject’ applies more directly to them, or perhaps to show the wife’s high significance in family life. For when she is in good order, everything in the house is in order. In Christianity, the wife’s obedience takes on a special character, since it flows from the fear of God and is ranked with works pleasing to God, done directly for the Lord Himself.”
St. John Chrysostom says: “If one who resists even external civil authorities resists God’s command (Rom 13:2), much more does she who does not obey her husband. God has required this from the beginning.”
“The Apostle set before husband and wife, as the foundation of their happiness, love and care. He assigned to each what is fitting: to the one, authority and care; to the other, obedience.”
Theophylact writes: “As Christ, being Head of the Church, provides for her and saves her, so the husband is the savior of the wife, his own body. How then should this body not obey the head?”
From the general exhortation to mutual subjection, the Apostle turns to particular matters and first speaks about the mutual relation of Christian spouses.
He addresses wives first, since they have a closer relation to family life than husbands do. He exhorts them to submit to their husbands, not only because nature teaches this obedience.
They must do so from the awareness that the husband is above the wife, and that he represents for her manly nature restored and ennobled in Christ.
Moreover, in family life the husband is to the wife what Christ is to the Church, with respect to the divine economy of our salvation.
Although Christ is the Savior of the body, that is, of the Church, which a husband can never be in relation to his wife, nevertheless (Άλλ) the wife must obey her husband in all respects, as the Church obeys Christ.
This text is clear in itself, both in content and in its place here. It is the direct conclusion from what precedes and presents nothing new that has not already been said above.
Our interpreters say almost nothing about it. Only Blessed Theophylact answers the question: “How is she to obey in everything? Must she obey even when he turns aside into unbelief and begins to draw her into the same?”
He says, “But here the Apostle is not speaking of unbelieving husbands, but of believing ones.”
Christ, the Head of the Church, is God. He gathers and leads His Church to eternal glory. She knows this and obeys Him without wavering in everything He is pleased to do in her and with her, in her inner ordering and outward destiny.
But with respect to a man, doubt is always appropriate. Therefore this “in everything” must be limited.
Yet in the Apostle’s discourse it is very strongly limited by the phrase, “as to the Lord.” This also gives the thought: for the purposes and aims of the Lord.
So it is also said in the Epistle to the Colossians: “as is fitting in the Lord” (Col 3:18). It is limited still more by the comparison of the husband’s headship with the Lord’s headship, which proceeds from salvation.
What kind of savior is a husband if he saves the body only on condition that the soul be destroyed?
Blessed Jerome makes another observation concerning the holiness of married life: “If the wife must obey her husband as the Church obeys Christ, then the union between husband and wife must be holy, and they must never serve fleshly passions.”
The same thought is found in St. John of Damascus: “The Apostle binds the wife to obey her husband according to the pattern of the Church’s obedience to Christ, so that this obedience may be not bodily, but spiritual in character.”
Passages read together with this verse.
Greek text, 15 words with lemma, transliteration and Strong’s number. Tap to expand.
THEOSIS