Paul used the ancient Greek word “agape” love while describing Christ’s love: Here it is important to define the four kinds of love:
- Eros:It is an erotic love. It refers to love driven by desire.
- Storge: It refers to family love, the kind of love there is between a parent and child, or between family members in general. It is love driven by blood.
- Philia: It speaks of a brotherly friendship and affection. It is the love of deep friendship and partnership. It is fondness, or love driven by common interests and affection.
- Agape: The above three describe “instinctive” love. It is defined as a sacrificial, giving, absorbing, love. · It is a love that loves without changing. This is so great that it can be given to the unlovable or unappealing, even when it is rejected, without any demands or re-payment.
Apostle Paul says that all Christian husbands must continue to practice self-denial for the sake of their wives.”
- Christ died for the church: (5:25): But Paul reiterates here that just as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself, the husband must love his wife. The husband must make Christ’s love for the church, the pattern for loving his wife.
- Christ lives to make the church holy and clean: (5:26): The ancient eastern countries had the custom that brides were prepared for marriage by a ceremonial bath. Paul make an illustration that Christ’s death and sacrifice cleanses the church and sanctifies it. Christ cleansed the church through the Word and by the washing of Baptism. Through Baptism we are prepared for entrance into the church.
- Christ will one day present the church to Himself as a glorious church without stain or wrinkle: (5:27): Today the church is not perfect. It has spots and wrinkles. Spots are caused by defilement on the outside, while wrinkles are caused by decay on the inside. Because the church becomes defiled by the world, it needs constant cleansing, and the Word of God is the cleansing agent. “Keep yourselves unspotted from the world” (Jam.1:27). As the church is nourished by the Word, these wrinkles ought to disappear. Like a beautiful bride, the church ought to be clean and youthful, which is possible through the Spirit of God using the Word of God. One day the church will be presented in heaven “a glorious church” at the coming of Jesus Christ (Jude 24).
- Husbands are to love their wives as they love their own bodies: (5:28-29): The union of husband and wife becomes one flesh or oneness. It does not mean that losing one’s own personality or identity. In the marriage relationship, the husband and wife become “one flesh.” Therefore, whatever each does to the other, he does to himself or herself. It is a mutually satisfying experience. The man who loves his wife is actually loving his own body, since he and his wife are one flesh. As he loves her, he is nourishing her.
- We are the members of Christ’s body: (5:30): Our Christian homes are to be pictures of Christ’s relationship to His church. Each believer is a member of Christ’s body, and each believer is to help nourish the body in love (Eph 4:16). We are one with Christ. The church is His body and His bride, and the Christian home is a divinely ordained illustration of this relationship. This certainly makes marriage a serious matter.
- Leaving and cleaving: (5:31): It is not good for a man to be alone. It the nature’s principle, that man leaves his father and mother and be united with his wife and the two will become one flesh. If the husband and wife becomes one flesh, then for the man to love his wife must be natural. It is wrong for a believer to marry an unbeliever, but it is also wrong for two Christians to marry out of the will of God. When two Christians marry in the will of God, they must stay in God’s will if they want their home to be the creative fellowship. We know that “The fruit of the Spirit is love” (Gal 5:22), and unless both husband and wife are walking in the Spirit they cannot share the love of Christ, the love that is so beautifully described in (1 Cor.13). The root of most marital problems is sin, and the root of all sin is selfishness. Submission to Christ and to one another is the only way to overcome selfishness. When we submit, the Holy Spirit can fill us and enable us to love one another in a sacrificial, sanctifying, satisfying way, the way Christ loves the church.
- A profound mystery: (5:32-33): The profound mystery is the bond between Christ and the Church (the bride). The truth that was so great a mystery was, that the eternal Son of God should form such an union with men. The union of Christ and His church gives a far higher illustration than the union of husband and wife.
- A final instructions for husbands: (5:33): Apostle Paul comes back to the subject rephrasing the summary of the whole passage, that every husband must love his wife and wife must honour and respect as the head of the family.