Ephesians 5:25

Husbands Here the instruction is equally precise and more full. Cp. 1 Peter 3:7.

love "in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18), "giving honour unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel" (1 Pet., quoted above). Monod well says that the Apostle, true to the spirit of the Gospel, speaks to the wife of the authority of the husband, to the husband of devotion to the wife: each party is reminded not of rights, but of duties.

even as Christ What a standard for the man's conjugal love, in point of elevation, holiness, and self-sacrifice! "In Christian domestic life, Jesus Christ is at once the starting point and the goal of everything … We may even say that domestic life is the triumph of the Christian faith" (Monod).

loved the church, &c. Cp. the same words of the individual soul, Galatians 2:10, "Who loved meand gave Himself for me." The two places are in deepest harmony. Cp. also above, Ephesians 5:2.

" Loved:" in the pre-mundane view and grace indicated e.g.Ephesians 1:3-7. Cp. 2 Timothy 1:9.

gave Lit. (and so Galatians 2:20), gave over, delivered up, to suffering and death. The same word is used e.g.Romans 4:25; Romans 8:32.

himself The supreme Ransom-gift. Cp. Titus 2:14 (where the Gr. verb is simply "gave.")

for it Better, in this vivid context, for her. On the preposition, see above on Ephesians 5:2.