Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, September 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 19 / Ordinary 24
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Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

Colossians 3:18

Wives, be willing to serve your husbands. This is the right thing to do in following the Lord.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Family;   Husband;   Wife;   Thompson Chain Reference - Duty;   Home;   Social Duties;   Wives' Duty;   Women;   The Topic Concordance - Marriage;   Submission;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Marriage;   Sexuality, Human;   Woman;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Marriage;   Wife;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Colosse;   Marriage;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Colossians;   Marriage;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Ethics;   Grace;   Marriage;   Sanctification, Sanctify;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Angels;   Christian Life;   Colossians, Epistle to the;   Commandment;   Family;   Justice;   Liberty;   Marriage;   Quotations;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Husband;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Marriage;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Essenes, the;   In the Lord;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Marriage;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
King James Version (1611)
Wiues, submit your selues vnto your owne husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
King James Version
Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
English Standard Version
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New American Standard Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New Century Version
Wives, yield to the authority of your husbands, because this is the right thing to do in the Lord.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Legacy Standard Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Berean Standard Bible
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Contemporary English Version
A wife must put her husband first. This is her duty as a follower of the Lord.
Complete Jewish Bible
Wives, subject yourselves to your husbands, as is appropriate in the Lord.
Darby Translation
Wives, be subject to [your] husbands, as is fitting in [the] Lord.
Geneva Bible (1587)
Wiues, submit your selues vnto your husbands, as it is comely in the Lord.
George Lamsa Translation
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is appropriate in Christ.
Good News Translation
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, for that is what you should do as Christians.
Lexham English Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Literal Translation
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Amplified Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands [out of respect for their position as protector, and their accountability to God], as is proper and fitting in the Lord.
American Standard Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Bible in Basic English
Wives, be under the authority of your husbands, as is right in the Lord.
Hebrew Names Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
International Standard Version
Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.Ephesians 5:3,22; Titus 2:5; 1 Peter 3:1;">[xr]
Etheridge Translation
WIVES, be subject to your husbands, as it is right in the Meshiha.
Murdock Translation
Wives, be ye subject to your husbands, as is right in the Messiah.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
Wiues, submit your selues vnto your owne husbandes, as it is comely in the Lorde.
English Revised Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
World English Bible
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Wesley's New Testament (1755)
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands (as is fit) in the Lord.
Weymouth's New Testament
Married women, be submissive to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Wymmen, be ye sugetis to youre hosebondis, as it bihoueth in the Lord.
Update Bible Version
Wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Webster's Bible Translation
Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord.
New English Translation
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New King James Version
Ephesians 5:21-6:9">[xr] Wives, submit to your own husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
New Living Translation
Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting for those who belong to the Lord.
New Life Bible
Wives, obey your husbands. This is what the Lord wants you to do.
New Revised Standard
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Ye wives! be submitting yourselves unto your husbands, as is becoming in the Lord;
Douay-Rheims Bible
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as it behoveth in the Lord.
Revised Standard Version
Wives, be subject to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.
Tyndale New Testament (1525)
Wyves submit youre selves vnto youre awne husbandes as it is comly in the Lorde.
Young's Literal Translation
The wives! be subject to your own husbands, as is fit in the Lord;
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Ye wyues, submytte youre selues vnto youre hussbandes, as it is comly in the LORDE.
Mace New Testament (1729)
Dames, be submissive to your husbands, as becomes christians.
THE MESSAGE
Wives, understand and support your husbands by submitting to them in ways that honor the Master.
Simplified Cowboy Version
Ladies, show respect for your husbands and submit to him out of your love for the Lord.

Contextual Overview

18 Wives, be willing to serve your husbands. This is the right thing to do in following the Lord. 19 Husbands, love your wives, and be gentle to them. 20 Children, obey your parents in everything. This pleases the Lord. 21 Fathers, don't upset your children. If you are too hard to please, they might want to stop trying. 22 Servants, obey your masters in everything. Obey all the time, even when they can't see you. Don't just pretend to work hard so that they will treat you well. No, you must serve your masters honestly because you respect the Lord. 23 In all the work you are given, do the best you can. Work as though you are working for the Lord, not any earthly master. 24 Remember that you will receive your reward from the Lord, who will give you what he promised his people. Yes, you are serving Christ. He is your real Master. 25 Remember that anyone who does wrong will be punished for that wrong. And the Lord treats everyone the same.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

submit: Genesis 3:16, Esther 1:20, 1 Corinthians 11:3, 1 Corinthians 14:34, Ephesians 5:22-24, Ephesians 5:33, 1 Timothy 2:12, Titus 2:4, Titus 2:5, 1 Peter 3:1-6

as: Acts 5:29, Ephesians 5:3, Ephesians 6:1

Reciprocal: Ruth 1:8 - the dead 1 Timothy 2:11 - General

Cross-References

Genesis 3:14
So the Lord God said to the snake, "You did this very bad thing, so bad things will happen to you. It will be worse for you than for any other animal. You must crawl on your belly and eat dust all the days of your life.
Genesis 3:15
I will make you and the woman enemies to each other. Your children and her children will be enemies. You will bite her child's foot, but he will crush your head."
Joshua 23:13
the Lord your God will not help you defeat your enemies. They will become like a trap for you. They will cause you pain—like smoke and dust in your eyes. And you will be forced to leave this good land. The Lord your God gave you this land. But you can lose it if you don't obey this command.
Job 1:21
and said, "When I was born into this world, I was naked and had nothing. When I die and leave this world, I will be naked and have nothing. The Lord gives, and the Lord takes away. Praise the name of the Lord !"
Job 5:5
Hungry people ate all his crops, even the grain growing among the thorns, and greedy people took all he had.
Job 31:40
If I ever did any of these bad things, let thorns and weeds grow in my fields instead of wheat and barley!" Job's words are finished.
Psalms 90:3
You bring people into this world, and you change them into dust again.
Psalms 104:2
You wear light like a robe. You spread out the skies like a curtain.
Proverbs 22:5
Evil people are trapped by many troubles, but those who want to live avoid them.
Proverbs 24:31
Weeds were growing everywhere! Wild vines covered the ground, and the wall around the vineyard was broken and falling down.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands,.... The apostle proceeds from those duties which related to them as church members one towards another, for their mutual good and edification, and the glory of God, to such as concerned them in their own houses and families, as in a natural relation to each other; as husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants; showing hereby, that the Gospel does not at all break in upon, but establishes the duties of common and civil life. Concerning the duty wives to their husbands, here exhorted to, :-. The reason urging to a regard to it is,

as it is fit in the Lord; that is, Christ, as the Syriac version reads it. Subjection of wives to their own husbands is "fit" and proper in its own nature, by reason of the original creation of man, and of the woman from him: man was made first, and then the woman; and the woman was made out of the man, out of one of his ribs; and so, though not to be trampled under his feet, but to be by his side, and an help meet to him, yet not to be head, or to rule over him. Moreover, the woman was made for the man, and not the man for the woman; add to this, that the woman was in the transgression, and the means of the fall of man, which gave a fresh reason for, and made the obligation to subjection to him the stronger: and it is also a "decent" and becoming thing for wives to be subject to their husbands; for as it is giving honour to them, it is a real ornament to themselves, and is one of those good works which women professing godliness should adorn themselves with; and makes more comely and beautiful than broidered hair; gold, pearls, or costly array, yea, than their natural favour and beauty: it is what is fitting "in the Lord": it is what he requires, not only what the law of God requires, see 1 Corinthians 14:34 and which was enjoined originally, see Genesis 3:16 and was charged as a duty under the legal dispensation; but is what is commanded by Christ under the Gospel dispensation, and is to be observed by all those that are "in" him, that profess to be new creatures, converted persons, that so the word of God be not blasphemed, and the enemy have no occasion to reproach, see Titus 2:5 though this phrase may also be considered as a restriction and limitation of this subjection; that though it reaches to all things, yet only to such as are agreeable to the will of the Lord, and not contrary to the Gospel of Christ; for in these they are not to be subject to them, but to Christ the Lord; but in all other things they are, even as the church is subject to Christ: and when this is the case, such subjection is regarded by Christ as if it was done to himself; and indeed his honour and glory should be the governing view in it; see Ephesians 5:22.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Wives, submit yourselves ... - Notes on the parallel passage in Ephesians 5:21-24.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 18. Wives, submit yourselves — Having done with general directions, the apostle comes to particular duties, which are commonly called relative; because they only belong to persons in certain situations; and are not incumbent on all. No woman has the duty of a wife to perform but she who is one, and no man has the duty of a husband to perform but he who is married.

The directions here to wives, husbands, children, parents, servants, and masters, are so exactly the same in substance with those in Ephesians 5:22-33(note); Ephesians 6:1-9 (note), that there is no need to repeat what has been said on those passages; and to the notes there the reader is requested to refer.

As it is fit in the Lord. — God commands it; and it is both proper and decent.


 
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