Charles Hodge on Ephesians 5:17-33

21. Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. 23. 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. 24. Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in every thing. 25. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26. that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word: 27. that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 28. So ought men to love their wives, as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. 29. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church: 30. for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. 31. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. 32. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33. Nevertheless, let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself: and the wife see that she reverence her husband.

The apostle enjoins mutual obedience as a Christian duty, v. 21. Under this head he treats of the relative duties of husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants. The remainder of this chapter is devoted to the duties of husbands and wives. As the conjugal relation is analogous to that which Christ sustains to the church, the one serves to illustrate the others. The apostle, therefore, combines the two subjects throughout the paragraph.

Wives should be subject to their husbands as the church is to Christ. 1. The motive to this subject is a regard to the Lord, v. 22. 2. The ground of it is, that the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church, v. 23. 3. This subjection is not confined to any one sphere, but extends to all, v. 24.

Husbands should love their wives. 1. The measure of this love is Christ’s love for the church for whose redemption he died, vs. 25-27. 2. The ground of love is in both cases the same—the wife is flesh of her husband’s flesh, and bone of his bone. So the church is flesh of Christ’s flesh and bone of his bone. Husband and wife are one flesh; so are Christ and the church. What is true of the one is true of the other, vs. 29-31. 3. The union between Christ and his church is indeed of a higher order than that between husband and wife—nevertheless the analogy between. the two cases is such as to render it obligatory on the husband to love his wife as being himself, and on the wife to reverence her husband, vs. 32-33.