Why are wives told to submit to their husbands?
Wives are told to submit because God has mandated the husband as head of the wife, just as Christ is head of the church. This submission is 'as unto the Lord,' not slavery or a husband lording over her; it pictures the church's relationship to Christ, while the husband is to live for her benefit.
Les teaches that God has still mandated the husband and wife relationship so that the husband is the head of the wife. He explains this does not mean the wife can be his gopher, his slave girl, or that he can lord over her. The next verse makes the relationship plain: as the Lord is to the church, so the husband is to the wife, and the wife is to the husband as the church or body of Christ is to the Lord. Verse 22 says, “wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” The reason in verse 23 is that the eternal sovereign God has mandated that the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church. Les asks whether it is uncomfortable or miserable to be in the body of Christ with Christ as the head, and answers no, because He has purest love and gives the best, coming that we might have life more abundantly. The husband and wife relationship should be the same, with the husband living totally to the benefit of his wife.
For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.