Submission does not mean slavery. What is the biblical role of the wife?
In Ephesians 5: 22-24 we are given the clearest biblical definition of roles in marriage. In these verses God through the apostle Paul speaks particularly to the woman about her responsibilities to her husband: as to the Lord - "Because the husband is the head of the woman, just as Christ is the head of the church, being the same the Savior of the body. But just as the church is subject to Christ, so women should be subject to their husbands in everything. "- Ephesians 5: 23-24 (NASB).
In Genesis 2: 18-20, God through His servant Moses teaches that woman was created to be the right help, to complement man and collaborate with him. In a real sense, the wife is an embodiment of the husband's life.
In the quotation from the book of Ephesians, we are taught that a woman must be subject or submissive to her husband. How can we link these two concepts? How can a woman be a complement to her husband and be subject at the same time? What does this mean in a practical sense?
First, the submission of the wife to the husband is out of love, not out of obligation or fear. The church submits to the Lordship of Christ voluntarily, in response to His love. The motivation of the woman to submit to her husband must be the same.
Submission is not servitude, nor become a pawn in the hands of her husband.
She retains her idiosyncrasy as a person, with the right to her own ideas and feelings. She is not a maid. He continues to be a human being with a personality and defined needs. She needs to accept responsibilities and make decisions to the same extent as her husband.
God left us a manual, the Bible, which, following his instructions, the marriage will reflect as the fruit of this submission, the glory of God in Christ through this relationship.
When the woman chooses not to be submissive, it is a lack of her towards her husband, it is a problem both spiritual and marital. If so, the wife would be a clear disobedience towards God and her husband, for He has ordained it.
The woman should encourage and strengthen the husband in his male role as boss and never try to destroy him, usurp him, weaken him or eliminate him. A woman of God has to respect her husband and affirm his mandate.
God has established man as responsible before Him and this is His plan in marriage and what we should do is to respect Him by fulfilling everything He tells us as wives. Let's not make life more difficult for our husbands, because already with their roles and responsibilities they have more than enough.
We must help them by not competing with them, but rather by holding them in prayer. We do not have to demonstrate our value by pretending to usurp the role of our spouses, because God in His infinite wisdom has granted us by creating us in His image, but above all through redemption in Christ.