25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
25 Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting.
25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her,
25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her
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.
33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
33 However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
33 And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband.
33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
(Read Ephesians 5:22-33)
The duty of wives is, submission to their husbands in the Lord, which includes honouring and obeying them, from a principle of love to them. The duty of husbands is to love their wives. The love of Christ to the church is an example, which is sincere, pure, and constant, notwithstanding her failures. Christ gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify it in this world, and glorify it in the next, that he might bestow on all his members a principle of holiness, and deliver them from the guilt, the pollution, and the dominion of sin, by those influences of the Holy Spirit, of which baptismal water was the outward sign. The church and believers will not be without spot or wrinkle till they come to glory. But those only who are sanctified now, shall be glorified hereafter. The words of Adam, mentioned by the apostle, are spoken literally of marriage; but they have also a hidden sense in them, relating to the union between Christ and his church. It was a kind of type, as having resemblance. There will be failures and defects on both sides, in the present state of human nature, yet this does not alter the relation. All the duties of marriage are included in unity and love. And while we adore and rejoice in the condescending love of Christ, let husbands and wives learn hence their duties to each other. Thus the worst evils would be prevented, and many painful effects would be avoided.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ephesians 5:25
Commentary on Ephesians 5:22-33
(Read Ephesians 5:22-33)
The duty of wives is, submission to their husbands in the Lord, which includes honouring and obeying them, from a principle of love to them. The duty of husbands is to love their wives. The love of Christ to the church is an example, which is sincere, pure, and constant, notwithstanding her failures. Christ gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify it in this world, and glorify it in the next, that he might bestow on all his members a principle of holiness, and deliver them from the guilt, the pollution, and the dominion of sin, by those influences of the Holy Spirit, of which baptismal water was the outward sign. The church and believers will not be without spot or wrinkle till they come to glory. But those only who are sanctified now, shall be glorified hereafter. The words of Adam, mentioned by the apostle, are spoken literally of marriage; but they have also a hidden sense in them, relating to the union between Christ and his church. It was a kind of type, as having resemblance. There will be failures and defects on both sides, in the present state of human nature, yet this does not alter the relation. All the duties of marriage are included in unity and love. And while we adore and rejoice in the condescending love of Christ, let husbands and wives learn hence their duties to each other. Thus the worst evils would be prevented, and many painful effects would be avoided.