Notice that I've been saying responsibility rather than authority! When Paul writes about "husbands and wives" in marriage, he only uses the word "authority" once; and he uses it in this sense: the husband does not have authority over his own body, and the wife doesn't have authority over hers. Paul is not saying, "The husband is the authority figure who rules the roost, and women better submit!" He doesn't say that! The idea of her 'submitting' to his head ship, as we'll see in a moment, is not so much he is the ultimate authority because he is a man, and she is a woman.

Let’s see if I can illustrate this for you. In the Marines, we used to say: "You don't salute the man, you salute the uniform!" Same with the President of the United States of America; you might not like the man, but he is the President, whether you like it or not! And he's your President, whether you like it or not! So you don't salute the man, you salute the uniform. In actual fact, a man can function in entirely different situations.

I played rugby for the Marines. I was the only non-commissioned rank on the team, the other fourteen were all officers, I had a non-commissioned rank, because I was only in for a short period of time. But the interesting thing about it was this: Whilst all the others had superior rank to me, I played "stand-off-half" which is equivalent of quarterback. That was wonderful! So I got the ball first, and it would come to me all the time. I had four options: I could pass left, I could pass right, I could keep it and go ahead with it, or I could kick! Now, I had fourteen officers yelling and shouting at me, telling me what to do all around me, and I used to ignore them with impunity! The guy who played right next to me was the adjutant and he was number two behind the commanding officer, and he would yell and scream and shout for the ball, and I would grin at him, and pass it the other way; and I loved it!

But when I got on parade the next morning, it was an entirely different matter. I was the same man, he was the same man. But in his position, there was a different roll being played. It isn't that men are superior and women are inferior; it's that in the economy of God in a marriage, a husband has been invested by God with responsibility, and the wife recognizes it and responds to it. She submits to her husband as to the Lord.

Now the women here in Ephesus won't even question it. They say, “What's new? That's the way we spend our lives, being submissive around here.” And the Apostle Paul said: No, you've got to understand that you are fundamentally equal with those men. You are both made in the image of God. You're both redeemed sinners. You're both indwelt by the Holy Spirit. As a man and a woman, you are fundamentally equal, but the husband has been given responsibility delegated by God, and you need to recognize it!