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.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:22 Other mss omit submit
  2. 5:26 Or having cleansed
  3. 5:30 Other mss add and of his flesh and of his bones
  4. 5:31 Gn 2:24

Marriage like Christ and the Church

22 (A)Wives, (B)subject yourselves to your own husbands, (C)as to the Lord. 23 For (D)the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the (E)head of the church, He Himself (F)being the Savior of the body. 24 But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

25 (G)Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and (H)gave Himself up for her, 26 (I)so that He might sanctify her, having (J)cleansed her by the (K)washing of water with (L)the word, 27 that He might (M)present to Himself the church [a]in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be (N)holy and blameless. 28 So husbands also ought to (O)love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; 29 for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, 30 because we are (P)parts of His (Q)body. 31 (R)For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. 32 This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless, as for you individually, each husband is to (S)love his own wife the same as himself, and the wife must see to it that she (T)respects her husband.

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Footnotes

  1. Ephesians 5:27 Lit glorious