Ephesians 5:28

So With a love akin to the love of Christ just described. The Gr. word is one whose reference tends to precedingideas.

as their own bodies A clause explanatory of "So" just above. It was thus that Christ loved the Church. In eternal purpose, and in actual redemption and regeneration, she is at once His Bride and His Body. The husband is accordingly to regard his wife as, in a profound and sacred sense, part and parcel of his own living frame.

his wife Lit., his own wife. The Gr. emphasizes the "self-ness," so to speak, of the relation: "his own wife… his own self."