Ye wives, be in subjection to your husbands, as is fit in the Lord (Ephesians 5:22-24; 1 Timothy 2:11-15; Titus 2:5; 1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Corinthians 14:34, 1 Corinthians 14:35; 1 Peter 3:1-6; Genesis 3:16).
On this duty the apostle dilates in the Ephesian letter, in illustration of its teaching respecting "Christ and the Church" (comp. the very different treatment of it in 1 Peter 3:1-7), The use of the article ( αἱ γύναικες) in the nominative of address is frequent in New Testament, though not in classical Greek.
Lightfoot thinks it Hebraistic. ανηκεν stands in the imperfect tense (literally, it was fit), denoting a normal propriety (comp. Ephesians 5:4, Westcott and Hort; and for the general expression, 1 Corinthians 11:13, 1 Corinthians 11:14; Philippians 1:8; Ephesians 5:3; 1 Timothy 2:10; Philippians 4:8; Romans 1:29).
Like all men of a sound moral nature, St Paul has a strong sense of natural propriety. The adjunct "in the Lord" belongs to "was fit," not "be subject" (comp. Colossians 3:20). The constitution of nature, as we have learnt in Colossians 1:15-18, is grounded "in the Lord."
In Ephesians 5:22-33 St. Paul shows that this inherent propriety has a deep spiritual significance; and he makes the subjection of the Church to her heavenly Lord a new reason for wifely submission.