The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 242

is wbat we could not have dared to ha"o put before us of ourselves. It would hnve H'm11cd profanity to have conjoined things so far apart. llut thus it has been dictated for us by the Spirit of inspiration: "Husb.'\uds, love your wives, even as Christ also kn,i t'.le Church." The husband is to pvsscss, to cherish, and to manifest devoted love t-,wa:--i his mfr·. .And if his is the position of authoritv yet is he (an all-requirincr l,,w being nls,, his) to forget himself in services rendered t~ her. And specially is h; t,n1ght fn.,m the high model that he is not to pamper his wife (or to be careful how to 1•!case his mfe, as Paul puts the case of the married), bnt he is to recrard her as criven i.im for a higher end, :md to seek that she mny possess all spiritual bea;ty. 2. Gr~und. "Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies." The ,;round of the duty is that the wife is one fle_sh with the husband. 'fhere are two points (not immedintcly connected, but brought up :i.fterward) which go to prove this. The first is that woman derived her being from man. Eve was taken out of Adam, and the language was used regarding her by Adam : " This is now bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh." The second point is that, in the marriage union, man and woman a.re said to become one flesh. "For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the twain shall become one flesh." The wife, then, being one flesh with the husband, there comes into operation (in support of the duty of tl1e husband) the principle of self-preservation. '! He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh ; but nourisheth and cherisheth it." The Christian analogy. "Even as Christ also the Church." Christ bestows a fostering care on the Church; and this is not ·only lovely, but it·is thorO'll,ghly natural. Far: (1) The Church i.s one fle,sh with Christ by derivation. "Because. we are members of his body." Her spiritual being is from Christ as much as Eve's physical being was from A.dam. (2) The Church becomes one fle,sh with Christ in the marriage union. Here the won.ls of the marriage ceremony are quoted with the added comment, "This r::.:yEtery i.s great: but I speak in regard of Christ and of the Church." 'l'he language, '"'one flesh," has a strangeness in its application to an ordinary marriage union, ·but the apostle i.s careful to let us know that he uses it in reference to the mystical, union of Christ and the <Jhurch (by no distortion, for that is the archetype, or original pattern of all marriage, and, we must believe, was in the Divine mind when the words were uttered in Paradise). Shall we think of the Son leaving his Father's house and cleav- ing to his bride in human flesh? But we must not (as some have done) pry too· curiously into it; for it is a mystery, and we must simply lay hold upon the great fact that it points to the union between Christ and the Church being so intimate that he loves her as he loves hi.J.oself. ' III. REcAPITUl,ATION (order of duties inverted). Duty· of husband. "Nevertheless' [i.e. not to press the mystical bearings of the subject] do ye also severally love each, one his own wife even as himself." It is again an idea.I of very difficult attainment. What a fostering-ea.re is conjoined with his authority! And this to be Christ-like (in that fosterin" care which be is now bestowing upon his Church~ and which he will one day bring to~ mature rerult)? Duty of wife. "And let the wife see that she fear her· husband." He may personally be deficient (in comparison with her) in those qualities v.-i::ich fit hlm!for being bead, but nevertheless she i1 to show deference to him in re-"Jll'-Ct c,f the position which he holds. In the precept here it is- rupposed that he has C~--u;tian worth (which is what the representative of Christ should have, what is the w:ormnent of his position). And even when a Christian wife ca.1:IDot IO?k to Christian \,e;rth in her husband, yet must she preserve reverence toward him, while at the samo ~.lILe: seeking to win him over to Christ. Two less(m8 may be learned here. 1. Mar- riatJe i, a Christian ardinance. It is not, indeed, to be raised (as it is by the Roman Catholics) to the rank of a Christian sacrament; bnt neither is it to be reduced to. a mere civil arrangement.. It is here associated with the sublimest Christian thought.. 'fbis, and the presence of Christ at the marriage in Cana. of Galilee, give it a thoroughly • Christian cb.i.ra.cter and throw a Christian ha.lo around it of the brightest nature, ~- It ii 410t to be lightly enwred into, but in a Christian manner. Man and woman ✓ ,j.lust LeloDg to the Lord before they belong to ea.eh other, and are to enter into the ( m..rrie:d state that they may help each other to be more entirely the Lord's. A Christian ';,; not at liberty to marry one who is not a Christian (even in the hope of making him IJC her a Christian). A Christian even among Christians is to seek from tho Lord. en. v. 1-03.J Tim EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. 243