Study Desk

submitting to one another in the fear of Christ.^(z)

Wives,^(aa) submit^[f](ab) to your own husbands^(ac) as to the Lord,

for the husband is the head of the wife^(ad) as Christ is the head^(ae) of the church. He is the Savior of the body.^(af)

Now as the church submits to Christ, so wives are to submit to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives,^(ag) just as Christ loved^(ah) the church and gave Himself^(ai) for her

to make her holy, cleansing^[g] her with the washing of water by the word.

He did this to present the church to Himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or anything like that, but holy and blameless.^(aj)

In the same way, husbands are to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself.

For no one ever hates his own flesh but provides and cares for it, just as Christ does for the church,

since we are members of His body.^[h]

For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, ^(ak) and the two will become one flesh. ^(al)[i]

This mystery^(am) is profound, but I am talking about Christ and the church.

To sum up, each one of you is to love his wife as himself, and the wife is to respect her husband.