[[2]] 1 Pet. v. 5.
[[3]] 1 Chron. xii. 32.
DIVISION II. § 5. CHAPTERS V. 22-VI. 9.
The relation of husbands and wives: parents and
children: masters and servants.
The law of subordination
St. Paul mentions submission as required, in a sense, from all Christians towards all others—'submitting yourselves one to another.' But it is plain that in any community, and most of all in a Christian community where order is a divine principle, some will be specially 'under authority': and accordingly St. Paul applies his general maxim to three classes in particular—wives towards their husbands, children towards their parents, slaves towards their masters. But in making these applications of the law of obedience, he enlarges his subject by including the counter-balancing principle of the duty of self-sacrificing love on the part of those in authority; so that he treats not one side of the relation only but both.