“22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands (the Holy Spirit, through the Apostle, is relating to the spiritual leadership of the family), as unto the Lord. (First of all, the submission is to be to Christ as Lord and Master, and not to the husband. If the husband’s supremacy had been in view, it would have been expressed in a different manner, so say the Greek Scholars. If the wife properly submits to the Lord, she will properly submit to her husband as it regards spiritual leadership, that is if he knows the Lord. If he doesn’t know the Lord, such submission cannot be tendered, as would be obvious.)
23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head of the Church (suggests the obedience the wife renders to her husband is to be regarded as obedience rendered to Christ, which she can do if her husband is properly following the Lord): and He is the Saviour of the Body. (This refers to the Lord being the Saviour of Believers, who make up the Church. While the husband cannot be the Saviour of his wife in redemptive terms, he can be her protector and provider.)
24 Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ (as its Head), so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. (This presupposes that the husband is conducting himself even as Christ.)
25 Husbands, love your wives (with a God kind of love), even as Christ also loved the Church (presents the qualifier; if a husband conducts himself accordingly toward his wife, she will have no problem whatsoever submitting to him, even as she should), and gave Himself for it (presents the great Sacrifice which characterizes the God kind of love; the answer for marriage problems is not marriage seminars, but rather that both husband and wife place their Faith and confidence totally in Christ and what He has done for us at the Cross; in other words, the Cross alone, which refers to what Jesus did there, is the answer);” Eph. 5
JSM