Bible Strands
Colossians 3:18
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Paul addresses wives within a household instruction, placing their role directly after a command to do all things in Jesus' name and immediately before an order for husbands to love their wives and avoid harshness.
The words — The Greek ὑποτάσσεσθε (hupotassesthe) commands a continuous action of being submitted, while ὡς ἀνῆκεν (hōs anēken) frames this posture as what is fitting.
The thread — This directive parallels Ephesians 5:22, which ties wifely submission to the Lord, while 1 Corinthians 11:3 outlines a headship structure, and Titus 2:4 addresses training young women to love their husbands.
Why it lands — The text requires wives to actively submit to their own husbands as a practical expression of what is fitting in the Lord.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
Cross-references
- Ephesians 5:22 Wives, submit to your husbands as to the Lord.
- Titus 2:4 In this way they can train the young women to love their husbands and children,
- 1 Corinthians 11:3 But I want you to understand that the head of every man is Christ, and the head of the woman is man, and the head of Christ is God.
- 1 Peter 3:1 Wives, in the same way, submit yourselves to your husbands, so that even if they refuse to believe the word, they will be won over without words by the behavior of their wives
- Genesis 3:16 To the woman He said: “I will sharply increase your pain in childbirth; in pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
- 1 Timothy 2:12 I do not permit a woman to teach or to exercise authority over a man; she is to remain quiet.
- Esther 1:20 The edict the king issues will be heard throughout his vast kingdom—and so all women, from the least to the greatest, will honor their husbands.”
- 1 Corinthians 14:34 Women are to be silent in the churches. They are not permitted to speak, but must be in submission, as the law says.
- Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles replied, “We must obey God rather than men.
- Ephesians 5:3 But among you, as is proper among the saints, there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed.