This Mystery Is Profound: Ephesians 5:21-33

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

The section begins with mutuality. One another. The submission is not one-directional but reciprocal. Out of reverence for Christ—the motive transforms the action.

Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands as you do to the Lord.

The application to wives follows the general principle. Submit to your own husbands—not to all men, but to your own husband. As to the Lord—the submission is ultimately to Christ, mediated through the marriage relationship.

For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

The rationale. Headship. But headship defined by Christ. Christ is head of the church—not as tyrant but as Savior. He heads the body by saving it. The husband's headship must be interpreted through Christ's.

Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands in everything.

The pattern. The church submits to Christ—willingly, joyfully, trustingly. So also. The analogy instructs. In everything—comprehensively, not selectively.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

Now the husband's instruction. Love. Not lead, not rule, not control—love. And love defined by Christ.

Just as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love? He gave himself up. Self-sacrifice is the shape of husbandly love. The husband who loves like Christ is willing to die for his wife.

To make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Christ's purpose in loving. To make her holy. To cleanse. To present her radiant. Without stain—no sin-spots. Without wrinkle—no aging decay. Holy and blameless—the goal of his love.

The husband who loves like Christ wants his wife's holiness. Her flourishing. Her radiance. His love serves her sanctification.

In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

As their own bodies. The argument from self-interest. You care for your body—you feed it, protect it, nurture it. Love your wife the same way.

He who loves his wife loves himself. The union is so complete that loving her is loving yourself. Her good is your good.

After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for it, just as Christ does the church—for we are members of his body.

The logic is inescapable. You care for your body. Christ cares for the church—because we are his body. Husband and wife are one body. Love follows naturally.

"For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh."

Genesis quoted. The original design. Leave—the priority shifts. Unite—the bond forms. One flesh—the union complete. This was God's plan from the garden.

This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church.

The mystery revealed. Paul's real subject all along is not merely marriage but Christ and the church. Marriage is the illustration. Christ and the church is the reality.

The mystery is profound. Mega—great, profound, deep. Human marriage echoes something cosmic. The one-flesh union points to the Christ-church union.

However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

The practical summary. Husband: love as yourself. Wife: respect. The instructions are tailored—not because respect is unimportant for husbands or love for wives, but because each needs to hear their particular call.

Love and respect. The dance of Christian marriage. Both given. Both received. Both flowing from and pointing to Christ and the church.

This mystery is profound.

Marriage matters not only for what it is but for what it pictures.

Christ gave himself for the church. Husbands, love like that.

The church submits to Christ. Wives, trust like that.

And together, display the mystery.