22 Within the marriage relationship wives are addressed first, and they are urged to be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. Although the verse does not contain any verb, ‘submit’ carries over from Eph. 5:21, with the imperative being understood instead of the participle. The notion of submission in the preceding verse is now unpacked without repeating the verb. As we have already seen, the keyword rendered ‘submit’ has to do with the subordination of someone in an ordered array to another who is above the first, that is, in authority over that person. At the heart of this submission is the notion of ‘order’. God has established certain leadership and authority roles within the family, and submission is a humble recognition of that divine ordering. The apostle is not urging every woman to submit to every man, but wives to their husbands. The use of the middle voice of this verb (cf. Col. 3:18) emphasizes the voluntary character of the submission. Paul’s admonition to wives is an appeal to free and responsible persons which can only be heeded voluntarily, never by the elimination or breaking of the human will, much less by means of a servile submissiveness.

The idea of subordination to authority in general, as well as in the family, is out of favor in a world which prizes permissiveness and freedom. Christians are often affected by these attitudes. Subordination smacks of exploitation and oppression that are deeply resented. But authority is not synonymous with tyranny, and the submission to which the apostle refers does not imply inferiority. Wives and husbands (as well as children and parents, servants and masters) have different God-appointed roles, but all have equal dignity because they have been made in the divine image and in Christ have put on the new person who is created to be like God (4:24). Having described the single new humanity which God is creating in his Son, with its focus on the oneness in Christ of all, especially Jew and Gentile (cf. Col. 3:11; Gal. 3:28), the apostle ‘does not now [in this household table] destroy his own thesis by erecting new barriers of sex, age and rank in God’s new society in which they have been abolished’. That the verb ‘submit, be subordinate’ can be used of Christ’s submission to the authority of the Father (1 Cor. 15:28) shows that it can denote a functional subordination without implying inferiority, or less honor and glory.

The motivation for the wife to be subject to her husband is spelled out in the final phrase, as to the Lord. The general admonition of Eph. 5:21 to be submissive in ‘the fear of Christ’ finds concrete expression for the wife in the marriage situation: as she is subordinate to her husband, so in that very action she is submitting to the Lord. Her voluntary response is not called for because of her role in society, nor is it to be understood as separate from her submission to Christ. Rather, it is part and parcel of the way that she serves the Lord Jesus (cf. Col. 3:23 of servants who engage in wholehearted work for their masters and in that very action serve their heavenly Lord). – Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 411–412.

23 The reason for the wife’s submission to her husband is now expressed through the causal clause: ‘for the husband is head of the wife as Christ also is head of the church’. On two earlier occasions in Ephesians the key term ‘head’ has been used, both with reference to Christ (Eph. 1:22; 4:15). Now, for the first time, the husband’s headship is stated as a fact, and made the basis of his wife’s submission. The origin of this headship is not elaborated here, although in the fuller treatments of 1 Corinthians 11:3–12 and 1 Timothy 2:11–13 it is grounded in the order of creation, especially the narrative of Genesis 2 (cf. 1 Cor. 11:8, 9).

In each of the earlier instances of this term in Ephesians it signifies ‘head’ as ‘ruler’ or ‘authority’, rather than ‘source’, or one who is ‘prominent, preeminent’. At Eph. 1:22 ‘head’ expresses the idea of Christ’s supremacy and authority over the cosmos, especially the evil powers, which he exercises on behalf of the church (cf. Col. 1:18; 2:10). His rule over his people is described at Eph. 4:15, and this headship is expressed in his care and nourishment, as well as in his leadership of them in the fulfillment of the divine purposes. Here the headship of the husband, in the light of the usage at Eph. 5:22, the general context of the authority structure of the Graeco-Roman household, and the submission of the wife to her husband within marriage in Eph. 5:22–24, refers to his having authority over his wife; thus he is her leader or ruler.

The mere presence of the terms ‘head’ and ‘submission’ in this context does not of itself ‘establish stereotypes of masculine and feminine behaviour’. Different cultures may assign different roles for men and women, husbands and wives. What is important here is that the nature of the husband’s headship in God’s new society is explained in relation to Christ’s headship. The husband is head of the wife as also Christ is head of the church. ‘Although [Paul] … grounds the fact of the husband’s headship in creation, he defines it in relation to the headship of Christ the redeemer’. Christ’s headship over the church is expressed by his loving it and giving his life for it, as Eph. 5:25–27 so clearly show. This will have profound implications for the husband’s behavior as head of his wife (v. 28).

The additional words, ‘he himself is the Savior of the body’, at first sight appear rather surprising and have caused exegetes to question whether they refer to the husband’s role as his wife’s protector or are part of the Christ-church/husband-wife analogy, thereby signifying that as Christ is the Savior of the body, so also the husband is in some sense the savior of his wife. While the term ‘savior’ could possibly be taken in a general sense of protector or provider of the wife’s welfare, so that the analogy of Christ’s relationship to the church can be paralleled in the husband’s ‘saving’ his wife, both syntax and usage are against it.

Instead, the clause is specifically focussed on Christ, not the husband: the personal pronoun ‘he himself’ is emphatic by its presence and position, and clearly refers to Christ. Nowhere in the context is the wife regarded as the husband’s body, as the church is Christ’s body. Further, the term ‘savior’, which turns up twenty-four times in the New Testament, always refers to Jesus or God, but never to human beings. To interpret the words, then, of Christ fits appropriately within the flow of the apostle’s argument. Paul has been urging wives to be submissive to their husbands. The reason for this turns on the headship of the husband, which is parallel to Christ’s headship or rule over the church. Paul then adds that the person who is head of the church is none other than the one who is the Savior of the body. His saving activity, especially his sacrificial death (Eph. 2:14–18; cf. Eph. 5:2), was for the deliverance of men and women in dire spiritual peril (Eph. 2:1–10).

Later in the paragraph, the apostle will urge husbands as heads of their wives to serve them in love. Their pattern is the Lord Jesus, whose headship was demonstrated in his loving the church and giving himself up for it, in order to present it faultless to himself (Eph. 5:25–27). – Peter Thomas O’Brien, The Letter to the Ephesians, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1999), 412–415.