Paul just said that we all are to be in subjection to one another in Christ. Now he's giving us God's order in the family.
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
Just as Christ is head of the church, so the husband is the head of his wife. As we are all to submit to Christ, so the wife is to submit to her husband's leadership in the family.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her,
A husband is to love his wife sacrificially, just as Christ loved the church. Jesus went to the cross to be executed for His church; this is the kind of love a husband is to love his wife with: this passionate, this selfless, this freely. Only in Christ can he hope to be able to do this.
so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word,
Jesus' blood washed us permanently clean, but we still walk in the world, so we need to wash our "feet" regularly of the dust and grime with the water of the Word.
that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.
Christ did this for us, so that we could be perfect, pristine, crystal clean in every way.
So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself;
for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church,
because we are members of His body.
For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh (Genesis 2: 24).This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church.
Because Jesus Christ cares so carefully for His church, because we are His body; so a husband is to also care for his own wife as carefully as he takes care of his own needs. Because their two bodies become "one flesh" in marriage.
That Christ is the head of His church, which is His body, is a great mystery, in that we cannot understand how we can be one body as well as individual people in different places. Marriage is one flesh, our marriage with Christ is one Spirit.
Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband.
We see that the order of authority comes down from God the Father, to God the Son, to the pastor or husband, to the congregation or the wife, and the wife has her husband's authority over the children.
Everything in order, not chaos or confusion.
O my Father, Your order allows for peace to prevail in Your creation. The universe dances across the sky with perfect precision, and the Earth travels the path You set for it around our Sun. Your Love and peace provide the order we need for our whole universe to function without everything crashing into everything else. But everything is still wearing out and winding down, because of the curse You put on it as a result of Adam's sin.
Help us, Father, to realize Your order in our families; teach the husbands how to love their wives, and enable the wives to honor and respect their husbands in submitting to their authority. And may all Your children live out the structure of authority that You designed our world to have, to show the world Your love as we submit to one another in love.
And every eye shall see, every knee will bow, every tongue will proclaim that Jesus is our Christ, Lord God Almighty, sovereign King over all Creation; to the glory of Almighty God the Father, for ever and ever. Amen.
Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!
