In this episode, we examine how marital priorities from God’s perspective are best carried out. According to God’s Word, marriage is a gift of relationship from God that He intended for companionship, closeness, oneness, and growth. In Genesis 2, God laid out His blueprint for this divinely created institution in the Garden of Eden. The union of husband and wife requires full commitment from each—a complementary partnership of mutual support through life’s joys and challenges.

We learn from this teaching in Ephesians 5 that the Bible has a lot to say about wives and their role within the marriage relationship—including willingly submitting to their husbands “as unto the Lord,” which runs counter to the post-Fall struggle for control. This submission is not about inferiority, coercion, or abuse, but a voluntary heart attitude of respect, support, and honor that affirms the husband's leadership role while maintaining equality in worth. A wife’s influence is to be directed toward nurturing children and building up her husband, ultimately glorifying God through Christlikeness.

A husband loving his wife as Christ loves the Church is about willingly seeking her highest good. This message from Ephesians 5 shows that this servant-leadership love should be unconditional, active, and ongoing. There are many twisted ideas about the headship of the husband in the home. Scripture is clear, however, that this headship is not a dictatorship, but comes with great responsibility and accountability to Christ. The husband is to model Christ’s care, sanctification, and commitment so that his wife feels secure, and flourishes—fostering harmony, oneness, and mutual respect.

If you want your child to love God, you are to love God first. This study reveals that, as God’s agents, parents have the responsibility and authority to teach and train their children—while disciplining in love—helping them to understand themselves and their place in this world, and most importantly their need for Christ. And as Ephesians 6 commands, children are to obey their parents “in the Lord” with both action and a heart attitude of respect, which produces solid moral character, helps avoid sin and danger, and brings the promise of well-being through heeding wise guidance.

In this lesson, God has called fathers to a more profound task than simply being a care-provider. They are commanded not to provoke their children to anger through harsh treatment, but instead to “bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” Fathers are to shepherd and guide their children on God’s behalf, while leading them toward God and His Word, and to salvation through the finished work of Christ. As the head and spiritual leader of the home, the father is to know and love God first—modeling authentic faith and building a biblical foundation so his children trust Christ and grow in godliness.

In Ephesians 6:5-9, the Apostle Paul instructs “servants” (employees) to obey their “masters” (employers) with respect, sincerity, and diligence—"as unto Christ"—and not only when being watched. Employers, in turn, are to treat workers fairly and kindly, recognizing that they, too, are accountable to their Master in heaven. The episode emphasizes that the workplace is a mission field where both sides should demonstrate Christlike character, with integrity that glorifies God and strengthens testimonies for the cause of Christ.