What Are the Husband’s Responsibilities?

Ephesians 5:21-33

“Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her” (Ephesians 5:25). We have so many failed marriages because we have thrown away the plan that God has given. According to the Word of God, the husband has three major responsibilities:

Servant Leadership

“Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also Christ is head of the church; and He is the Savior of the body” (Ephesians 5:22-23). To have headship is to have responsibility.

“But I want you to know that the head of every man is Christ, the head of woman is man, and the head of Christ is God” (1 Corinthians 11:3). While males and females are equal, (See Genesis 1:27, 1 Peter 3:7.) God has given them different roles.

A Leader Serves

“He who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves” (Luke 22:26b). Jesus washed His disciples’ feet. (Read John 13:3-5,13-14.)

A Leader is Gentle

The Apostle Paul said to the church in Thessalonica, “We were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children” (1 Thessalonians 2:7). How many husbands are gentle with their wives?

A Leader Guides by Example

Peter said, “The elders who are among you I exhort. …Shepherd the flock of God which is among you, serving as overseers, not by compulsion but willingly, not for dishonest gain but eagerly; nor as being lords over those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock” (1 Peter 5:1-3).

Sacrificial Love 

What is the husband’s love for his wife?

Passionate

This is love that says, “I would give myself up for you.” (See Ephesians 5:25.) Nothing is too precious for a husband to give up for his wife—except his relationship with God. Most women don’t mind submitting to a man who loves her enough to die for her, and shows it by the way he lives.

Purifying

Christ gave Himself up for the Church “that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). The husband’s chief assignment from God is to make his wife a more radiant Christian.

Protecting

“So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself” (Ephesians 5:28). According to 1 Peter 3:7, she is “the weaker vessel.” As a rule, God gave the man a stronger frame. God gave men to protect, as Jesus protects the Church.

Providing

“For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church” (Ephesians 5:29). To cherish means to warm with body heat, and to nourish means to feed and mature.

Steadfast Loyalty

“‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband” (Ephesians 5:31-33).

The priority of marriage is the relationship between husband and wife.

The permanence of marriage is that he shall “be joined to his wife.” That word in the Greek and Hebrew has the idea of being welded together. (See Matthew 19:6.)

And the purpose of marriage is, “the two shall become one flesh.” This is a blending not just of the body, but of the soul and the spirit—until death do you part.