v.22-27
1. Repeated words:
A. for the wives, submission
i. As to the Lord v.22 (as submissive to the head v.23)
ii. As the church submits to Christ v.24a
iii. Submit in everything v.24b
B. for the husbands, love, sacrifice v.26
2. Difficult phrase v.26
(PNTC)This cleansing, expressed through an aorist participle, has often been taken as describing an action antecedent to that of the main verb...the cleansing of the church is thought to precede her sanctification or consecration (which, as we have seen, has been viewed as a process)...Cleansing points to the removal of sin, while sanctification focusses on being set apart to God. To use systematic theological categories, it is positional or definitive sanctification that is in view here, not progressive sanctification.
Christ’s death on behalf of the church was to make her holy by cleansing her with the washing of water, and this is analogous to the bridal bath.
to join the phrase ‘through the word’ with the ‘cleansing’, and to understand it as signifying ‘through the word of the gospel
His love for the church is the model for husbands in its purpose and goal, as well as in its self-sacrifice (v. 25). In the light of Christ’s complete giving of himself to make the church holy and cleanse her, husbands should be utterly committed to the total well-being, especially the spiritual welfare, of their wives
Summary and reflection: I think Scriptures have lots of wisdom to command the wives to submit to the husbands prior to the command to the husbands to love the wives. The submission is relatively easier than love. However, to the wives who read that first may have all the objections in the heart. The degree of submission to the husband is the same as the to the Lord. As long as you are submission to the Lord wives should do the same to our own husbands. He is my Savior and I owe my life to Him. Now, He wants me to reflect my submission to Him to my husband. Of course, I should obey. The submission to the husbands is the litmus test to our submission to the Lord. Finally, the Scriptures remind me the phrase, "If He is not the Lord of all, He is not the Lord at all." How is my submission to my husband? If not good, am I submissive to the Lord?
v.28-32
1. What is the relationship between the 1st and 2nd part of v.28?
28 In the same way husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies.
He who loves his wife loves present indicative himself.
ought to=BDAG to be under obligation to meet certain social or moral expectations, owe
The 1st=command; 2nd=the result; the explanation of why this is so is in v.29-33 (Husband and wife are one flesh. Wife is the body, flesh, or "himself")
2. Repeated phrase: body, flesh
love their wives as their own bodies, loves himself v.28
no one has ever hated his own body v.28
we are members of His (Christ) body v.30
two will become 1 flesh v.31
love his own wife as he loves himself v.33
The command to love his wife is to the extend to treat wife as himself, which is a very high standard. However, this is a commitment to marriage.
(PNTC) In the context of Ephesians 5 ‘flesh’ and ‘body’ are equivalent (note the shift to ‘flesh’ in v. 29a). Husband and wife, then, are regarded as one person, a single entity. Accordingly, the husband’s obligation to love his wife as his own body is not simply a matter of loving someone else just like he loves himself. It is, in fact, to love himself. Finally, the idea of husbands loving their wives as their own bodies reflects the model of Christ, whose love for the church can be seen as love for his own body (cf. vv. 23, 30).
Reflection and Summary: Although it is natural to love our own bodies but it takes a commitment to love the spouse as oneself. Christ does that to the church and husband who follows Christ should also follow His example. This is the second commitment. Pray for my husbands to follow these 2 commitments of his life.
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