difficulties in seeking to apply this aspect of the husband-wife relationship to Christ and

the Church, for if care is not exercised it could be maintained that Christ (as a Being) is in

no way superior to the church, but only positionally!  Such a thought cannot be

However, granted such limitations, and since Scripture itself uses the husband-wife

relationship as a picture of greater truths (Eph. 5:), a good deal of help may be obtained

by comparing these things together. Such comparison ought to have a very humbling

effect upon us as we seek to live out in practice, even if only in a shadowy way, our

relationship to each other as "male and female". It is a wonderful thought indeed that this

earthly relationship binds up in itself (in picture form, granted) the two mysteries

(secrets) of Eph. 3::

In Ephesians 5: the two are set forth in the husband-wife relationship expressed in

"one flesh", and they become, considered together, "a great secret" (verse 32). This

"great secret" is lived out as a picture in the lives of all who take their God-ordained

positions in the husband-wife relationship in obedience to His word.

The Apostle Paul has built practical truth upon two aspects of the headship of man

already considered: (a) concerning the recognition by woman of that headship insofar

that she has her head covered at worship (I Cor. 11: 3-16) and (b) with respect to

teaching and authority (I Tim. 2: 8-15).  These passages must be considered in later

articles with respect to their relevance or otherwise for the present dispensation.

Do these words, found in Eph. 5: 23, and linked to the thought of headship, apply to

Christ only, or do they have some relevance to the husband? It hardly seems likely that

Paul would have introduced them in this context, if they had no meaning at all apart from

expressing the work of Christ, as Saviour of the body of Christ, the church. Surely it is

logical to reckon that Paul introduced them here for a specific reason, and since his

subject is the practical relationship between husband and wife, they must have some truth

to convey in that light.

Commentators seem to have been frightened of allowing that this is so, no doubt

because it most certainly cannot be maintained that a man is the "saviour" of his wife, if

that word is to be given the full meaning that belongs to it when used of Christ.

Soter (saviour) however, may be used in a different sense than that normally conveyed

by the English word which always translates it in the A.V. Consider, for example, the

following observations from the Greek papyri on soter: