Both husband and wife must be subject to each other, concentrating on the needs of the family rather than on the urges of the individual.

Here are some devastating statistics from SBC Life, in an article titled “Kingdom Families.”

Each day of the year in America, more than 3,571 marriages end in divorce. More than 50 percent of the children in America’s public schools live in single-parent homes. Of the nation’s children who live apart from their biological fathers, 50 percent have never set foot in their father’s home.¹⁷

Sometimes I’ll be performing a wedding ceremony, and as we go through the reciting of the vows, we’ll get to “till death do us part,” when I realize that, in reality, the marriage outlook is so often, “It’s all about me-do-us-part!”

The answer to this selfish focus is found in our verse today from Ephesians. In the New American Standard Version, it reads, “Be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.” What does it mean to be subject to? “Be subject to” is an old military term in the Greek. It means “to rank under”; someone has authority over another. God’s solution to the “me-focus” is found in this rather militaristic phrase. Both husband and wife must be subject to each other, concentrating on the needs of the family rather than on the urges of the individual. After all, that’s what you signed up for when you promised before God “till death do us part.”