Submission Is A Two-Way Street

"Marriage Connections Devotions For Couples"
Written By: Greg Laurie

No husband should talk to his wife about submitting to him (Ephesians 5:22) until he has first read Ephesians 5:21, where God calls for mutual submission. Isn't it interesting that before God says a word to wives or husbands individually, he first instructs couples to submit to one another in the fear of God?
The Greek word translated "submit" here means "to get in order under something." In a military sense, it means "to rank beneath" or "to rank under." It can also be translated "to support one another." Husbands and wives are to support one another in the fear of God.
A husband's biggest booster and most ardent supporter should be his wife. A wife's greatest encourager and most ardent supporter should be her husband. they need to support one another in the reverence of Gog. Husbands must under-gird their wives and hold them up, and wives must do the same for their husbands. Both partners should always be ready to meet their spouse's needs and to sacrifice their own desires to help meet those of their mate. This is not to imply that a husband abdicates his responsibility for leadership in the home in his submission to his wife. Yet it does help to explain what submission is all about.
This issue is not about superiority or inferiority; it is about mutual sacrifice. It is about placing the needs of your mate above your won. Most importantly, it is about imitating God and walking in love. 
The husband no more "possesses" his wife than she "possesses" him. He is not superior; she is not inferior. They belong to each other. Therefore, when God calls a wife to submit to the leadership of her husband, he is not saying that the woman is any less than the man. She most definitely isn't.
First Corinthians 7:3-4 shows beautifully how mutual submission is really amounts  to a true partnership between a husband and a wife. "let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise also the wife to her husband," writes the apostle Paul. "The wife does not have autority over her own body, but hte husband does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but the wife does."
There it is again-a delightful partnership. No godly husband can say to his wife, "you do what I say," and no godly wife can speak with a reciprocal arrogance. God calls both husbands and wives to see themselves in a partnership together. That means working together and submitting to-and supporting- one another out of reverence to God.
Mutual submission is having a task so gigantic that everyone must pull together using whatever muscle, strength, and ingenuity is available in order to get the task done.