Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Parallel translations
- WEB Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- BSB Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- NKJV Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- NASB Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
- NLT Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Wives are to submit to their husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. This begins Paul's instructions for Christian households.
Overview
Paul opens his 'household code' addressing wives to 'be in subjection to your husbands,' qualified by 'as is fitting in the Lord.' This submission is voluntary, ordered, and shaped by Christ's lordship, not a license for harshness, since husbands are commanded to love sacrificially in the verses that follow. Faithful Christians discuss how this applies today, but agree it is rooted in the Lord and paired with the husband's call to selfless love.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Eph 5:22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.
- Titus 2:4–5That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,
- 1 Cor 11:3But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.
- 1 Pet 3:1–6Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives;
- Gen 3:16Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
- 1 Tim 2:12But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
- Esth 1:20And when the king’s decree which he shall make shall be published throughout all his empire, (for it is great,) all the wives shall give to their husbands honour, both to great and small.
- 1 Cor 14:34Let your women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law.
- Acts 5:29Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
- Eph 5:3But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints;
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Original language
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