Godly Subjection Within the Family Circle

13. Godly subjection within the family circle requires what of its members?

¹³ Within the family circle, the husband and father serves as head. This requires that wives heed the counsel given at Ephesians 5:22, 23: “Let wives be in subjection to their husbands as to the Lord, because a husband is head of his wife as the Christ also is head of the congregation.”a As for the children, they do not make their own rules but owe godly subjection to both father and mother, as Paul explains at Ephesians 6:1-3: “Children, be obedient to your parents in union with the Lord, for this is righteous: ‘Honor your father and your mother’; which is the first command with a promise: ‘That it may go well with you and you may endure a long time on the earth.’”

14. Godly subjection requires what of family heads?

¹⁴ Of course, it makes it easier for wives and children to render such godly subjection when husbands and fathers themselves display godly subjection. They do this by exercising their headship in keeping with Bible principles, such as those found at Ephesians 5:28, 29 and 6:4: “In this way husbands ought to be loving their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself, for no man ever hated his own flesh; but he feeds and cherishes it, as the Christ also does the congregation.” “Fathers, do not be irritating your children, but go on bringing them up in the discipline and mental-regulating of Jehovah.”