Ephesians 5:28-30 28So also husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. The one who loves his own wife loves himself. 29For no one ever hated his own flesh but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, 30because we are members of his body.
Paul now makes explicit connection of Christ’s sacrificial love for the church to the same type of sacrificial love a husband should have to his wife. Christ’s own body is the church, and he loves and takes care of his body. Husbands also take care of their own bodies by feeding, clothing, resting, working, cleaning, and many other things persons must do to care for themselves. We do not beat or injure our bodies but show tenderness. This is a powerful image for how husbands ought to treat their wives. The word love (agapan) intensifies this caring even more. This is the same type of love Jesus showed by dying for the church in verse 25. This love sacrifices in order to see another person experience salvation. Husbands will need to put the needs of their wives before their own to show this type of love. They will have to be committed unconditionally to this relationship, even in the difficult times. In loving their wives will husbands truly find satisfaction and purpose. Husbands who neglect or hurt their wives in anyway only hurt themselves.
Husbands should be able to look to the church for guidance and example for how to love their wives. Unfortunately, many people have a poor understanding of what the church is. The unity that should exist in the church is often not present. For some, “church” means the building on the corner or the one-hour activity on Sunday mornings. Even the phrase, “go to church,” is misleading. The vision for the church as the body of Christ that Paul gives in this letter is one of people committed to the lordship of Jesus, who are experiencing and living out his love in ever deeper ways, and are filled with the Spirit resulting in unconditional love for one another. A church like this can be a fertile ground for growing Christlike marriages of love and commitment.
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