While husbands seek a submissive wife, they must submit to God themselves and act towards their wives in the same way as Jesus did towards the Church. Jesus loved the Church so much that He laid down His life for the Church and likewise a husband needs to lay down his life for his wife. Ephesians says: “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her.”
This leads to a beautiful union where the wife has no problems to submit as she sees the love and sacrifice of her husband.
Submission exists in our everyday life and moreover applies to political leaders and the police. Submit to the government: “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God.”
Where we are forbidden to believe and share the Good News of the Gospel we must answer as Peter and John did: “But Peter and John replied, ‘Which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you, or to Him? You be the judges! As for us, we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.’”
The Bible also teaches submission to each other. We don’t have to be right all the time. We can humble ourselves to preserve peace: “Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.”
We must submit to the leaders that Christ appoints in the Church. Here is an example of this exhortation for submission by an early Church Father: “For, if the prayer of one and another has so great force, how much more that of the bishop and of the whole Church. Whosoever therefore comes not to the congregation, he does thereby show his pride and has separated himself; for it is written, ‘God resists the proud.’ Let us therefore be careful not to resist the bishop, that by our submission we may give ourselves to God.”