God Designed Men for Respect

"22Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body. 24Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing." (Ephesians 5: 22-24)

Psychologists in the past and today, pastors then and now, discuss one of the deepest needs of men: respect.

Respect had to do with honor, that a man makes the final decisions in the home.

Submission for a wife is not about slavery, but honoring the husband:

"Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband." (Ephesians 5: 33)

Reverence is a crucial, yet misunderstood revelation today. The original word is "phobeo" or "fear", yet this fear is about respect and honor, not terror or pain.

We all fear the Lord, because of the great things that He has done for us:

"And it shall be to me a name of joy, a praise and an honour before all the nations of the earth, which shall hear all the good that I do unto them: and they shall fear and tremble for all the goodness and for all the prosperity that I procure unto it." (Jeremiah 33: 9)

and

"Afterward shall the children of Israel return, and seek the LORD their God, and David their king; and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days." (Hosea 3: 5)

Fear is all about reverence, in response to the good which God has done for us:

"12Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. 13For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Philippians 2: 12-13)

Today, wives in the Body of Christ honor their husbands, because their First Husband Jesus gave them all things. In the same way, God has created man with the important desire of respect, and even the most secular of teachers and researchers understand this Biblical truth today.