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

22 For wives, this means submit to your husbands as to the Lord. 23 For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of the church. He is the Savior of his body, the church. 24 As the church submits to Christ, so you wives should submit to your husbands in everything.

25 For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her 26 to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.[a] 27 He did this to present her to himself as a glorious church without a spot or wrinkle or any other blemish. Instead, she will be holy and without fault. 28 In the same way, husbands ought to love their wives as they love their own bodies. For a man who loves his wife actually shows love for himself. 29 No one hates his own body but feeds and cares for it, just as Christ cares for the church. 30 And we are members of his body.

31 As the Scriptures say, “A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.”[b] 32 This is a great mystery, but it is an illustration of the way Christ and the church are one. 33 So again I say, each man must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.

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Footnotes

  1. 5:26 Greek washed by water with the word.
  2. 5:31 Gen 2:24.