Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.
-Ephesians 5:24, NIV
What Ephesians 5:24 does NOT say!
I did a post on a verse used against husbands (see here). This one is for the ladies–i.e. the faithful wives.
Notice this verse and surrounding passage NEVER mentions divorce. Not once. That is important.
It is certainly teaching on how Christians ought to act within a marriage. I would argue the broader context of this particular verse is mutual submission between husband and wife (see Ephesians 5:21). But that is for another post.
For some reason, pastors and other Christians like to latch onto this verse as a way to discern “why” a cheater cheats on his wife and leaves her plus his family.
“She must not have submitted to him as she was supposed to. That’s why he left her and the kids.”
This is crazy talk, not godly talk.
This verse in Ephesians 5 does not suggest a godly husband has the option to divorce–let alone commit adultery–over a wife who fails to be “submissive” to him.
That is NOT what the Scripture says.
To insert this text as justification for cheating, abandonment, and/or divorce of a faithful wife is a gross mishandling and abuse of Scripture!
Ephesians 5:24 is not about a contract agreement regarding marriage where the marriage can be voided if one side fails to live up to the expectations laid out there.
