Love That Gives Itself

Read aloud

Paul has just called believers to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. He now addresses wives and husbands. Both are to understand their marriage in relation to their Lord.

Wives are told to submit to their husbands as to the Lord. Paul describes the husband as the head of the wife, comparing this relationship to Christ as the head and Savior of the church. A wife's respect for her husband belongs within her allegiance to Christ. The husband remains accountable to that same Lord.

Husbands are commanded to love their wives as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her. Christ's sacrifice has a purpose: to make His people holy, cleansing them through the word and presenting them to Himself without stain or blemish. His love brings the church into the holiness He desires for her.

Paul then turns to the care people give their own bodies. A husband is to nourish and cherish his wife as he cares for himself, just as Christ cares for His church. Her needs concern him because their lives are joined. Sacrificial love should be visible in the ordinary care of marriage.

Quoting Genesis, Paul recalls that a man leaves his parents and is united to his wife, and the two become one flesh. This union points beyond itself to the profound mystery of Christ and the church. Paul ends with commands each spouse can hear personally: the husband must love his wife as himself, and the wife must respect her husband.