From the verses preceding this quotation, and those following, it is evident the apostle had reference to the marriage covenant, and not to the inferiority of woman or superiority of man.  Fidelity of wives to their husbands was the thing being enjoined; hence the comparison between the marriage state and the Church of Christ.  As the Church was to be pure from idolatry, acknowledging but one God, even the Father, and Jesus Christ his Son, so the wife was to be pure, submitting herself only to her husband.  It is not surprising that, in planting the Christian Church, such directions should be given to its members, gathered in as they were from a dark, immoral pagan world, where the marriage tie was so lightly regarded.  The husband should be to his wife the earthly “munition of rocks.”  It is in this sense that the man is the head of the woman and the Savior of her body.  The apostle continues:  “So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies.”  “Let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.”  Not worship him; but treat him with marked and becoming respect, making his interest her own, loving him above every earthly object, and seeking his happiness in every possible manner.  It is in this mutual sense that a wife is to be subject to her husband in every thing.  Even the greatest sticklers for the absolute subjection of women explain the latter clause of the text by adding the word lawful.  If a woman’s husband is to be her irresponsible lord, to whom she is to go for instruction, who is the qualified judge of what is lawful?  But the reasoning of the entire question as given in the chapter, portions of which have been quoted, does not bear out the assertion that the wife is mentally inferior to her husband, or that he has any right to treat her as such.  She is neither his servant nor his slave, so far as God’s law is concerned.  The wife has the same right to expect fidelity from her husband that he has to expect it from her.  The covenant of marriage is a mutual one, equally binding on both.

The injunction to the Ephesians concerning the relations in the married state is also given to the Colossians, very evidently relating to the same thing:  love and unwavering fidelity between man and wife.  Peter also enjoins the subjection of wives in his First Epistle, third chapter, first and second verses; but he also explains that this subjection is chastity, mild and gentle conversation, that their husbands, if not Christians, might be won over by them.  In this very injunction there is a supposition by the apostle that the husband and wife might be of different faith, that she might have learned something not taught by him, and have been in a position to instruct him; and by her chastity, her love and gentleness, and her instructions—­coupled with fear for his state out of Christ—­might succeed in winning him to the truth.