“Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ,” (Ephesians 5:21). This outstanding sentence clarifies one of Paul’s main objectives in outlining the household codes of Ephesians. Christ is the head of the Church, to which all Christians belong. However, Paul quickly shifts focus to the patriarchal marriage union to model Christian social norms: “Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything,” (Ephesians 5:24). Paul therefore uses the household code partly as an opportunity to provide a “theological justification and motivation for the subordination of wives, children and slaves to the head of the household,” (MacDonald, n.d., p. 341). Yet somewhat mysteriously, Paul switches back again and states, “This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church,” (5:32). Modern readers should not take Paul’s message about marriage customs and gender roles seriously, but should pay close attention to the metaphor being made. To view the relationship between Christ and Church as a marriage union helps strengthen social ties, without the moral turpitude that comes with patriarchal, slave-owning households. Unfortunately, Ephesians 5:21-32 has been taken out of context and also misinterpreted to...

Matera (n.d.) suggests that preachers can work with this passage in several ways, first by frankly addressing it with their congregations. To directly confront its underlying assumptions is to show the congregation how their own lives might reflect lingering remnants of the patriarchal past. Preachers can therefore use the text as a springboard for discussion about social justice, ethics, and the importance of changing social norms so that they improve to be aligned more perfectly with God’s will. Also, preachers can use this text as an example of how scripture is a living entity. Context matters, for scripture must reflect the universal truths and not the truths that are dependent on time, culture, or geography. Paul simply reflects back the patriarchal social order that was condoned and enforced throughout the Mediterranean. His audiences would have understood the metaphor without the underlying implications for social justice.
Paul’s primary purpose is to talk about the marriage union as a metaphor for Christ’s relationship with the Church, as he states directly in Ephesians 5:21 and then again in Ephesians 5:32. Paul wants to justify and promote…