Husbands Loving Wives Like Christ Loves Church
The Biblical Foundation
The concept of husbands loving their wives like Christ loves the Church is rooted in Ephesians 5:25, which states, "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her" [1]. This passage is part of a larger discussion on the relationship between husbands and wives, where the Apostle Paul draws a parallel between the love Christ has for the Church and the love husbands should have for their wives.
Understanding the Analogy
The analogy between Christ's love for the Church and a husband's love for his wife is not superficial. It implies a deep, sacrificial love. Christ's love for the Church is characterized by His willingness to give Himself up for her, indicating a selfless and sacrificial love [2]. Similarly, husbands are called to love their wives with the same level of selflessness and sacrifice. This includes providing for their wives' spiritual well-being and promoting their salvation [3].
Historical and Theological Interpretations
The early Church Fathers understood this passage as emphasizing the importance of mutual respect and love within marriage. Augustine notes that husbands are exhorted to love their wives using both a higher and a lower example: the higher being Christ's love for the Church, and the lower being their love for their own bodies [5]. This dual exhortation underscores the depth of love expected in a marital relationship.
John Chrysostom, an Eastern Orthodox Father, highlights the importance of the husband being the head of the wife, just as Christ is the head of the Church, and the husband being the savior of the body, emphasizing the responsibility and care that comes with this role [8]. The Reformed tradition, as seen in the writings of Charles Hodge, also explores the community of life between husband and wife, suggesting a deep and intrinsic bond [4].
Practical Applications
The practical outworking of this doctrine involves husbands showing a strong and cordial affection for their wives, seeking their contentment, and protecting them from harm [6]. It also involves a quiet, constant, and comfortable dwelling together, providing for one another's needs, and promoting each other's spiritual welfare.
The love that husbands are called to have for their wives is not merely emotional but is deeply rooted in their identity as followers of Christ. As Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown note, loving one's wife is akin to loving oneself, as the two become one flesh [7]. This understanding is reinforced by Augustine, who sees the love of a husband for his wife as a reflection of Christ's love for the Church, emphasizing the nourishing and cherishing aspect of this love [9].
Conclusion
The doctrine that husbands should love their wives like Christ loves the Church is a rich and multifaceted concept that has been explored by various Christian traditions. It emphasizes a deep, sacrificial love that is rooted in the relationship between Christ and the Church. This love is not limited to emotional affection but encompasses a broad range of actions and attitudes that promote the well-being and salvation of one's spouse. As such, it remains a foundational element of Christian teaching on marriage, underscoring the importance of mutual respect, care, and sacrifice within the marital relationship.
Sources
- Ephesians “Ephesians 5:25 (BSB) — Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her”
- Ephesians (Protestant academic) “Tyndale House on Ephesians 5:25: 5:25-33 Christian husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the church—that is, sacrificially, for Christ gave up his life for her (5:2; cp. Col 3:19; 1 Pet 3:7).”
- Ephesians (Methodist/Wesleyan) “Adam Clarke on Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives - Here is a grand rule, according to which every husband is called to act: Love your wife as Christ loved the Church. But how did Christ love the Church? He gave himself for it - he laid down his life for it. So then husbands should, if necessary, lay down their lives for their wives: and there is more implied in the words than mere protection and support; for, as Christ gave himself for the Church to save it, so husbands should, by all means in their power, labor to promote the salvation of their wives, and their constant edification in”
- CCEL (Reformed (Old Princeton)) “Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, Vol. 3, section 49: to its full development in the present state of existence; that there are capacities, feelings, and virtues which are not otherwise or elsewhere called into exercise. All this may be true, but it is not the whole truth. (4.) There is, in a certain sense, a community of life between husband and wife. We are accustomed to say, and to say truly, that the life of parents is communicated to their children. Each nation and every historical family has a form of life by which it is distinguished. As, therefore, the 385 life of a father and the li”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — ON CONTINENCE. (part 23): to love their own wives, he added a pattern, "As Christ loved the Church." But husbands he exhorted to it from a lower matter also, that is, from their own body: not only from a higher, that is, from their Lord. 389 For he not only saith, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church," which is from an higher: but he said also, "Husbands ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies," which is from a lower: because both higher and lower are all good. And yet the woman received not pattern from the body,”
- Ephesians (Baptist/Reformed) “John Gill on Ephesians 5:23: Husbands, love your wives,.... Which consists in a strong and cordial affection for them; in a real delight and pleasure in them; in showing respect, and doing honour to them; in seeking their contentment, satisfaction, and pleasure; in a quiet, constant, and comfortable dwelling with them; in providing all things necessary for them; in protecting them from all injuries and abuses; in concealing their faults, and covering their infirmities; in entertaining the best opinion of their persons and actions; and in endeavouring to promote their spiritual good and welfare”
- Ephesians (Presbyterian) “Jamieson, Fausset & Brown on Ephesians 5:28: Translate, "So ought husbands also (thus the oldest manuscripts read) to love their own (compare Note, see on Eph 5:22) wives as their own bodies." He that loveth his wife loveth himself--So there is the same love and the same union of body between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:30, Eph 5:32).”
- CCEL/NPNF (Eastern Orthodox) “John Chrysostom, Homilies on Galatians–Colossians–Thessalonians: is not, “but, nevertheless,” as the Church is subject to Christ, so let wives be to their husbands, etc.—Ellicott, Meyer, Bengel, Calvin, and Alford.—G.A.] as the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything.” Then after saying, “The husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is of the Church,” he further adds, “and He is the Saviour of the body.” For indeed the head is the saving health of the body. He had already laid down beforehand for man and wife, the ground and provision of their lo”
- Schaff ANF/NPNF (Patristic) “NPNF1 Vol 3: Augustine — On the Holy Trinity — ON CONTINENCE. (part 22): but that it may be holy and unspotted. So," saith he, "husbands also ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies. Whoso loveth his own wife, loveth himself."(5) Then he added, what we have already made mention of, "For no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it, and cherisheth it; as also Christ the Church."(6) What saith the madness of most impure impiety in answer to these things? What say ye in answer to these things, ye Manichees; ye who wish to bring in upon us, as if out of the Epistles of the Apostle”