Instructions for Christian Households^(A)

²¹ Submit to one another^(B) out of reverence for Christ.

²² Wives, submit yourselves to your own husbands^(C) as you do to the Lord.^{(D) 23} For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church,^(E) his body, of which he is the Savior. ²⁴ Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit to their husbands^(F) in everything.

²⁵ Husbands, love your wives,^(G) just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her^{(H) 26} to make her holy,^(I) cleansing^[a] her by the washing^(J) with water through the word, ²⁷ and to present her to himself^(K) as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.^{(L) 28} In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives^(M) as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ After all, no one ever hated their own body, but they feed and care for their body, just as Christ does the church— ³⁰ for we are members of his body.^{(N) 31} “For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh.”^{[b](O) 32} This is a profound mystery—but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ However, each one of you also must love his wife^(P) as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

¹⁵ Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ himself?^(A) Shall I then take the members of Christ and unite them with a prostitute? Never! ¹⁶ Do you not know that he who unites himself with a prostitute is one with her in body? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”^{[a](B) 17} But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.^[b](C)

¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality.^(D) All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body.^{(E) 19} Do you not know that your bodies are temples^(F) of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;^{(G) 20} you were bought at a price.^(H) Therefore honor God with your bodies.^(I)

² I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you to one husband,^(A) to Christ, so that I might present you^(B) as a pure virgin to him.

The New Jerusalem, the Bride of the Lamb

⁹ One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues^(A) came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride,^(B) the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰ And he carried me away^(C) in the Spirit^(D) to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.^(E)

²⁷ Nothing impure will ever enter it, nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful,^(A) but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.^(B)