Wives and Husbands

²² Wives,^(A) submit^[a](B) to your husbands^(C) as to the Lord, ²³ because the husband is the head of the wife^(D) as Christ is the head^(E) of the church. He is the Savior of the body.^{(F) 24} Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives are to submit to their husbands in everything. ²⁵ Husbands, love your wives,^(G) just as Christ loved^(H) the church and gave himself^(I) for her ²⁶ to make her holy, cleansing^[b] her with the washing of water by the word. ²⁷ He did this to present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.^{(J) 28} In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. ²⁹ For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church, ³⁰ since we are members of his body.^{[c] 31} For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife,^(K) and the two will become one flesh.^{[d](L) 32} This mystery^(M) is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church. ³³ To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.

Man and Woman in the Garden

⁴ These are the records^(A) of the heavens and the earth, concerning their creation. At the time^[a] that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵ no shrub of the field^(B) had yet grown on the land,^[b] and no plant of the field had yet sprouted, for the Lord God had not made it rain on the land, and there was no man to work the ground. ⁶ But mist would come up from the earth and water all the ground. ⁷ Then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust from the ground^(C) and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils,^(D) and the man became a living being.^(E)

⁸ The Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east,^(F) and there he placed the man he had formed. ⁹ The Lord God caused to grow out of the ground every tree pleasing in appearance and good for food, including the tree of life in the middle of the garden,^(G) as well as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.^(H)

¹⁰ A river went^[c] out from Eden to water the garden. From there it divided and became the source of four rivers.^{[d] 11} The name of the first is Pishon, which flows through the entire land of Havilah,^[e](I) where there is gold. ¹² Gold from that land is pure;^[f] bdellium^[g] and onyx^[h] are also there. ¹³ The name of the second river is Gihon, which flows through the entire land of Cush. ¹⁴ The name of the third river is Tigris,^(J) which runs east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.^(K)

¹⁵ The Lord God took the man and placed him in the garden of Eden to work it and watch over it. ¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree of the garden,^{(L) 17} but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for on the day you eat from it, you will certainly die.”^{(M) 18} Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper corresponding^(N) to him.” ¹⁹ The Lord God formed out of the ground every wild animal and every bird of the sky, and brought each to the man to see what he would call it.^(O) And whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all the livestock, to the birds of the sky, and to every wild animal; but for the man^[i] no helper was found corresponding to him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to come over the man,^(P) and he slept. God took one of his ribs and closed the flesh at that place. ²² Then the Lord God made the rib he had taken from the man into a woman and brought her to the man.^{(Q) 23} And the man said:

²⁴ This is why a man leaves his father and mother and bonds with his wife, and they become one flesh.^{(S) 25} Both the man and his wife were naked, yet felt no shame.

Christ in Your Home

¹⁸ Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord.^{(A) 19} Husbands,^(B) love your wives^(C) and don’t be bitter^(D) toward them. ²⁰ Children,^(E) obey your parents in everything, for this pleases the Lord. ²¹ Fathers,^(F) do not exasperate^(G) your children, so that they won’t become discouraged. ²² Slaves, obey your human^(H) masters in everything. Don’t work only while being watched, as people-pleasers, but work wholeheartedly, fearing the Lord.^{(I) 23} Whatever you do, do it from the heart, as something done for the Lord and not for people,^{(J) 24} knowing that you will receive the reward of an inheritance from the Lord. You serve the Lord Christ. ²⁵ For the wrongdoer^(K) will be paid back for whatever wrong he has done, and there is no favoritism.