Wives, submit — as is fitting

Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them. The shortest of the household codes. Paired commands; no headship language.

Colossians 3:18–19 is the compressed parallel of Ephesians 5. No theological imagery of Christ and the church; no metaphor of headship. Just two verses: wives submit, husbands love, and specifically do not be embittered against your wives. The word pikrainesthe ("be harsh, bitter") is used nowhere else in Paul's household codes and suggests Paul is correcting a concrete pattern of marital harshness in the Colossian church. The household code is not abstract theology; it is pastoral triage.