Col 3:17-18, 18 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives and do not be bitter toward them
The Apostle concludes this chapter with exhortation to relative duties. He begins with the duties of wives and husbands. The duty of a wife is marked with the word “submission” which is fiercely come against in our time especially with the drive for gender equality in every way. God who invented marriages has designed that the wife recognizes her position of submission to her husband in her role in the marriage covenant. A husband may not deserve to be submitted to as a believer or not, however the bible is not addressing submission due to deserving but due to the position God has placed a husband. If a wife does not first honor the position, it will be hard for her to honor the man in the position.
God has a command for a husbands to love his wife. Husbands must love with tender and faithful affection, as Christ loved the church, and as their own bodies, and even as themselves. Notice the wives are not commanded to love, it’s natural gift from God, on the other hand husbands are commanded to love. Marriages can grow and blossom when husbands and wives learn these two words, “LOVE and RESPECT”. Love, command for husbands; Respect, command for wives.