Ephesians 5:25-27

The Love of Husbands for Their Wives

If the husband exhibits the love talked about in 5:25, most wives would readily submit to him. The love a husband is to have is not erotic or passionate, but intellectual commitment to the best interests of his wife. Christ is the perfect example of such love in his sacrificial death on the cross for the church. Husbands are urged to imitate Christ's self-sacrificing nature in their relationship with their wives.

Christ gave his life to set the church apart from the world through the cleansing his blood provides (Ephesians 1:7; Acts 20:28). The means of the church reaching that blood is through the baptism of each who would be a part of that sanctified body. There is a cleansing which takes place when one is lowered into the watery grave in obedience to the word (5:26; Mark 16:15-16; Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16; 1 Peter 3:21).

Having purchased the church with his own blood, Jesus is ever working toward its perfection (4:15-16). His desire is also for her purity that she may be ready to be taken home by her bridegroom in the great day of judgment (2 Corinthians 11:2-3). The perfection of the church can only be attained through constant and faithful teaching of the truth (Colossians 1:28; 1 Peter 2:2). The church will not be fully ready for presentation to Christ until her members have put on immortality and stand purified before him because of having completed their walk in the light where Christ's blood kept them pure (Revelation 19:6-8; Revelation 21:2; 1 Corinthians 15:5-57; 1 John 1:7). Christ's bride will be pure and without the spot of sin (5:27).