Calvin on submission

Here is an excerpt from Calvin's Commentaries on Ephesians 5

Verse 22 - Wives submit your selves.  He comes now to the various conditions of life; for, besides the universal bond of subjection, some are more closely bound to each other, according to their respective callings.  The community at large is divided, as it were, into so many yokes, out of which arises mutual obligation.  There is, first, the yoke of marriage between husband and wife; - secondly, the yoke which binds parents and children; - and, thirdly, the yoke which connects masters and servants.  By this arrangement there are six different classes, for each of whom Paul lays down peculiar duties.  He begins with wives, whom he enjoins to be subject to their husbands, in the same manner as to Christ, - as to the Lord.  Not that the authority is equal, but wives cannot obey Christ without yielding obedience to their husbands.

 Verse 23 - For the husband is the head of the wife.  This is the reason assigned why wives should be obedient.  Christ has  appointed the same relation to exist between a husband and a wife, as between himself and his church.  This comparison ought to produce a stronger impression on their minds, than the mere declaration that such is the appointment of God.  Two things are here stated.  God has given to the husband authority over the wife; and a resemblance of this authority is found in Christ, who is the head of the church, as the husband is of the wife.

 And he is the saviour of the body.  The pronoun HE is supposed by some to refer to Christ; and, by others, to the husband.  It applies more naturally, in my opinion, to Christ, but still with a view to the present subject.  In this point, as well as in others, the resemblance ought to hold.  As Christ rules over his church for her salvation, so nothing yields more advantage or comfort to the wife than to be subject to her husband.  To refuse that subjection, by means of which they might be saved, is to choose destruction.

Verse 24 - But, as the church is subject to Christ.  The particle but, may lead some to believe that the words, he is the saviour of the body, are intended to anticipate an objection.  Christ has, no doubt, this peculiar claim, that he is the Saviour of the Church: nevertheless, let wives know, that their husbands, though they cannot produce equal claims, have authority over them, after the example of Christ.  I prefer the former interpretation; for the argument derived from the word but, does not appear to me to have much weight.