his glory. It isin this way all social duties, even the most humiliating, are raised into the sphere of religion, and rendered consistent with the highest elevation and liberty. This idea is specially insisted upon by the apostle when he comes to speak of the duty of servants to their masters. It ought not to escape the reader’s notice that the relation in which this and similar pas- sages suppose us to stand to Christ, is such as we can sustain to no other than to a divine person. He to whom we are responsible for all our conduct, and rev- erence for whom is the great motive to the performance of duty, is God.
V. 22. Wives, submit yourselves to your own hus- bands, as unto the Lord. The general duty of mutual submission includes the specific duty of wives to be subject to their husbands, and this leads the apostle to speak of the relative duties of husbands and wives. And as the marriage relation is analogous to the rela- tion between Christ and his church, he is thus led to illustrate the one by the other. As the relation is the same, the duties flowing from it are the same; obe- dience on the part of the wife, and love on the part of the husband. The apostle teaches the nature, the ground, and the extent of the obedience due from the wife to the husband.
As to the nature of it, it is religious. It is ὡς τῷ Κυρίῳ, as to the Lord. The ὡς, as, does not express similarity, as though the obedience of the wife to her husband was to be as devout and as unconditional as that which she is bound to render to the Lord. But