Commentary on Ephesians 5:22-33

PRECEPTS FOR DOMESTIC LIFE; THE WIFE AND THE HUSBAND
A Summary of Ephesians 5:22-33

So far in this Chapter the Apostle has been giving general precepts regarding all Christians, but here he begins to treat of those that pertain to particular states, taking up the duties of wives and husbands in the remaining verses of this Chapter (Eph 5:21-33), and continuing in the first nine verses of the following Chapter  with a consideration of the duties of children and parents and servants and masters respectively (Eph 6:1-9). It is worthy of note that in each class the Apostle starts with the subordinate member(s) and concludes his admonition with a precept or precepts for the leading member(s), speaking first to wives and then to husbands, first to children and then to parents, first to servants and then to masters. In each particular case the spirit of Christ is to be the ruling principle; all precepts are to be obeyed in Christ and for Christ, who is the head of the mystical body of which Christians are the members. Thus, wives are to be subject to their husbands as to the Lord (Eph 5:22), children are to obey their parents in the Lord (Eph 6:1), servants are to obey their temporal masters in the Lord (Eph 6:5). On the other hand, husbands should love their wives as Christ has loved the Church (Eph 5:25, 28, 33), parents are to bring up their children in the discipline and correction of the Lord (Eph 6:4), masters must remember that there is the same Lord for all (Eph 6:9). See Voste, op. cit., hoc loco. This section of our Epistle on domestic duties has a close parallel in Col 3:18-4:1.

It was a revolutionary doctrine that St. Paul taught in this section of the present letter, as also in the corresponding section of the Epistle to the Colossians. He was writing to a strange mixture of Greeks, Phrygians, Romans, Jews, and the like—all converts to Christianity, but subject to and influenced by Roman rule. Up to then women had been in a state of subordination and subjection little better than dire servitude. In the Roman family the father was the head who ruled with absolute and often tyrannical authority over the wife, the children, and the slaves. His power was practically unlimited in the domestic circle, and he exercised it at times by punishing, torturing, and even putting to death his children and slaves, often for only trivial reasons; the wife fared but little better than her children. Nor did Christian teaching effect much change for the better in this severe discipline, generally speaking, until long after the time of St. Paul. Under Antonius Pius (138-161 a.d.) masters were made liable to accusation for the death of their slaves: the potestas manus of the husband over his wife finally ceased under Constantine and the other Christian emperors; and under Valentinian and Valens (about 364-375 a.d.) the chastisement of children was restricted. Therefore, in asking consideration for wives, children, and slaves, St. Paul had to proceed very cautiously, reminding them of their duties first, so as not to produce an unfavorable reaction to the teaching he wanted to give also to husbands, fathers, and masters. These latter had to be weaned away gradually from their pagan principles and customs, and imbued slowly with the new and lofty doctrines of Christianity, illustrated by the example of Christ. See Hitchcock, op. cit., hoc loco, 22-23.

Eph 5:21. Being subject one to another, in the fear of Christ.

In this verse the Apostle inculcates Christian submission. In grammatical form the verse goes with the preceding, but in substance it belongs to what follows, because with these words the Apostle turns to the discipline of the home, assigning as the motive of our submission, one to another, “the fear of Christ” (i.e., reverence for Christ), who is to be our future judge. At the end of verse 20 there should be only a comma in the Vulgate.

Eph 5:22. Let women be subject to their husbands, as to the Lord:

Be subject. These words are not in the best Greek MSS., but they are to be supplied from the preceding verse to complete the sense. If St. Paul requires wives to be obedient to their husbands, he is not less insistent on the husband’s duty to love and protect his wife (verse 25, 28, 33), and on the perfect spiritual equality between wife and husband (Gal 3:28). The wife is to be obedient to the husband in Christ, and the husband’s headship is to be one of love, modeled on the headship of Christ over the Church.

Eph 5:23. Because the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ is the head of the church. He is the saviour of the body.

The saviour, etc. Christ is not only the head of the Church, but He is also its “saviour,” i.e., literally its “deliverer,” “preserver,” by His passion and death. In like manner, therefore, the husband is bound to love, govern, protect and defend his wife.

The eius of the Vulgate in verse 23 is not expressed in the Greek, but is required by the sense. See 1 Cor 11:3.

Eph 5:24. Therefore as the church is subject to Christ, so also let the wives be to their husbands in all things.

In all things. The Apostle is speaking to Christians, and he is supposing the husband’s relation to his wife to be like the relation of Christ to the Church; and consequently he is supposing the husband will not command or require of his wife anything that is not right and according to the law of God.

Eph 5:25. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the church, and delivered himself up for it,

Verses 22-24 were addressed mainly to wives, but In verses 25-33 St. Paul speaks directly of the obligations of the husband. Having treated first, though briefly, of the obligations of the wife, he is now in a better position to dwell on the duties of husbands, and this at greater length, as it was more needed. To the wife he proposed the Church as a model, and now to husbands he will hold up Jesus Christ as a model and a pattern according to which they should regulate their treatment of and their dealings with their wives. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ has loved His Church, and they are to prove their love for their wives by sacrifice as Christ proved His love for the Church by delivering Himself up in sacrifice for It. The Church as a whole is here substituted for its members.

Eph 5:26. That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word,

In this and the following verse the Apostle will now give the effect and purpose of Christ’s love and sacrifice for the Church, which were that He might cleanse and sanctify it by the washing of Baptism, that He might present it to Himself as a glorious spouse, and that it might live and continue holy and without blemish in His sight.

Sanctify . . . cleansing. Both these verbs are in the aorist in Greek, and hence do not signify distinct intervals of time; cleansing from sin and sanctifying are one and the same act and process, or rather the negative and positive aspects respectively of the same act.

The laver of water refers to the water of Baptism, “the laver of regeneration, etc.” (Titus 3:5), the figure being taken from the bath of the bride before marriage among the Greeks.

In the word. Better, “accompanied by the word,” i.e., accompanied by the verbal formula which gives specific meaning to the water. The water thus becomes the matter, and the word or utterance becomes the form of the Sacrament of Baptism. With less probability of correctness some interpret “word” here of the preaching of the Gospel, or of faith, or of the profession of faith.

The vitæ (of life) of the Vulgate Is not expressed in Greek. The Vulgate text reads: "That he might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life".

Eph 5:27. That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy, and without blemish.

That he might present, etc. Our Lord cleansed and purified the Church as a bride for Himself, and arrayed her in a glory which St. John exhausts symbolism to describe in Rev 19:7 ff., Rev 21-22. This sanctification of the Church is going on here on earth, but its completion and perfection are reserved for the life to come.

Eph 5:28. So also ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife, loveth himself.
Eph 5:29. For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ doth the church:

The Apostle now applies to husband and wife what he has just said about Christ and the Church.

So, i.e., in the same manner; as Christ loved the Church in order “that He might present it to Himself holy and without blemish,” so should the love of husbands for their wives have in view their sanctification; and as Christ loves the Church as His mystical body, so husbands should love their wives as being one flesh with them, as constituting one body with them, of which the husband is the head. The Apostle does not say: “Let husbands love their wives as they love their own bodies, but because wives are to husbands as their own bodies” (Voste).

He that loveth his wife loveth himself, and the reason is that the wife is one with the body of the husband. From this it naturally follows that a man should love his wife as he loves himself, as another self; and since it would be unnatural for anyone under normal conditions to hate his own body and to be wanting in love and care for it, so would it be unnatural for a man not to love and care for his wife. Again the analogy of Christ enforces the argument.

No man ever hated, etc. The body is not to be hated or neglected, except when it gets in the way of a higher good.

Eph 5:30. Because we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

Here the Apostle passes from the impersonal to the first person plural, showing that the Church of which he has been speaking means its members, the Christians themselves; and hence the reason why Christ so loves the Church is that we Christians constitute it, as members of His mystical body.

Of his flesh, etc. These words are wanting in the best MSS., and are doubtless a gloss introduced from Gen 2:23.

Eph 5:31. For this cause shall a man leave his (suam) father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh.

This verse repeats Gen 2:24 according to the LXX, and shows the intimate union that exists between married persons, and how intimate consequently the love between them ought to be (cf. Matt 19:5-6). The verse is a Scripture proof of what the Apostle has just said above in verses 28 and 29.

The suam (his) of the Vulgate has no support in the Greek; and in corne una (to come together) should be in carnem unam (into one flesh), as in the Greek, meaning “unto one flesh,” i.e., as one flesh.

Eph 5:32. This is a great sacrament ; but I speak in Christ and in the church.

This is a great sacrament. Better, “This mystery is great,” i.e., a secret of the divine plan beyond the reach of unaided natural powers. What is this mystery or divine secret? It is the mystical or spiritual signification implied in conjugal union as created by God, by which marriage became a type and figure of the union between Christ and His Church. The mere union of man and woman in marriage is no mystery; the mystery is in what that union, as created by God, signifies and typifies, and that is the union between Christ and His Church. Therefore the Apostle says, “but I speak, etc.,” i.e., I speak with reference to Christ and His Church. Thus, the intimate union of Christ with the Church was prefigured by the union of man and woman in marriage; and hence in a wide sense matrimony, according to the intention of the Holy Ghost, has always been, from the very beginning of human kind, a sacrament, i.e., a sign of a sacred thing. But while from the union between Adam and Eve were born children of man according to nature and in sin, from the mystical union of Christ and His Church are born children of God in grace; the human race is regenerated in the Holy Ghost. There is not, then, question in this passage of a Sacrament of the New Law in the strict sense (so Voste, hoc loco). The most we can say, therefore, is that the sacramental doctrine of marriage is implied in the Apostle’s argument, though it is not explicitly taught; and this is what the Council of Trent (sess. XXIV) means by the word innuit (“to hint at”, or “suggest”) which it employed to express St. Paul’s sacramental teaching in this Mssage.

Eph 5:33. Nevertheless let every one of you also in particular love his wife as himself: and let the wife reverence her husband.

Nevertheless. Better, “For the rest.” In conclusion the Apostle summarily repeats the precepts given above, asking each married man to love his wife as his other self (ver. 28) and each wife to reverence her husband in Christ (ver. 21).