Morning Bible Study: Ephesians 5:21-33

21  And further, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Be Subject to One Another

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. 

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." 

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. NLT

*or*

21  Out of respect for Christ, be courteously reverent to one another.
Be Subject to One Another
22  Wives, understand and support your husbands in ways that show your support for Christ. 

23  The husband provides leadership to his wife the way Christ does to his church, not by domineering but by cherishing. 

24  So just as the church submits to Christ as he exercises such leadership, wives should likewise submit to their husbands. 

25  Husbands, go all out in your love for your wives, exactly as Christ did for the church - a love marked by giving, not getting. 

26  Christ's love makes the church whole. His words evoke her beauty. Everything he does and says is designed to bring the best out of her, 

27  dressing her in dazzling white silk, radiant with holiness. 28  And that is how husbands ought to love their wives. They're really doing themselves a favor - since they're already "one" in marriage. 

29  No one abuses his own body, does he? No, he feeds and pampers it. That's how Christ treats us, the church, 

30  since we are part of his body. 

31  And this is why a man leaves father and mother and cherishes his wife. No longer two, they become "one flesh." 

32  This is a huge mystery, and I don't pretend to understand it all. What is clearest to me is the way Christ treats the church. 

33  And this provides a good picture of how each husband is to treat his wife, loving himself in loving her, and how each wife is to honor her husband. The Message 

(the following is from Matthew Henry's Commentary -- www.christianity.com)

Commentary on Ephesians 5:21-33

"God keeps believers from sinning against him, and engages them to submit one to another in all he has commanded, to promote his glory, and to fulfill their duties to each other." (Henry's Concise Commentary)

"Here the apostle begins his exhortation to the discharge of relative duties. As a general foundation for these duties, he lays down that rule v. 21. There is a mutual submission that Christians owe one to another, condescending to bear one another's burdens: not advancing themselves above others, nor domineering over one another and giving laws to one another. Paul was an example of this truly Christian temper, for he became all things to all men. We must be of a yielding and of a submissive spirit, and ready to all the duties of the respective places and stations that God has allotted to us in the world. In the fear of God, that is, so far as is consistent with the fear of God, for his sake, and out of conscience towards him, and that hereby we may give proof that we truly fear him. Where there is this mutual condescension and submission, the duties of all relations will be the better performed." (Henry's Complete Commentary)

"The duty of wives is, submission to their husbands in the Lord, which includes honouring and obeying them, from a principle of love to them. The duty of husbands is to love their wives. The love of Christ to the church is an example, which is sincere, pure, and constant, notwithstanding her failures. Christ gave himself for the church, that he might sanctify it in this world, and glorify it in the next, that he might bestow on all his members a principle of holiness, and deliver them from the guilt, the pollution, and the dominion of sin, by those influences of the Holy Spirit, of which baptismal water was the outward sign. The church and believers will not be without spot or wrinkle till they come to glory. But those only who are sanctified now, shall be glorified hereafter. The words of Adam, mentioned by the apostle, are spoken literally of marriage; but they have also a hidden sense in them, relating to the union between Christ and his church. It was a kind of type, as having resemblance. There will be failures and defects on both sides, in the present state of human nature, yet this does not alter the relation. All the duties of marriage are included in unity and love. And while we adore and rejoice in the condescending love of Christ, let husbands and wives learn hence their duties to each other. Thus the worst evils would be prevented, and many painful effects would be avoided." (Henry's Concise Commentary)