🛡️WEB · Ephesians 5:25
What does Ephesians 5:25 mean?
"Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;"
— Ephesians 5:25 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the assembly, being himself the savior of the body.
But as the assembly is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their own husbands in everything.
Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the assembly, and gave himself up for it;
that he might sanctify it, having cleansed it by the washing of water with the word,
that he might present the assembly to himself gloriously, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without defect.
Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
Explanation
Ephesians 5:25 instructs husbands to love their wives, and it holds up Christ's love for the church as the pattern for that love. In plain terms, Paul is saying that a husband's love for his wife should not be based on feeling, convenience, or what he receives in return, but should mirror the self-giving, sacrificial love that Christ showed toward his people. The key phrase "gave himself up for it" points directly to the cross—Christ's love for the church was demonstrated not in words but in the costly act of laying down his life.
This verse comes from the letter of Ephesians, traditionally attributed to the apostle Paul, written to the church in Ephesus (and likely circulated among other churches in the region) during his imprisonment, probably in the early 60s AD. The letter as a whole addresses the identity and unity of the church as the body of Christ, and chapters 5 and 6 move into practical instructions for how this new identity in Christ should shape everyday relationships—between husbands and wives, parents and children, masters and servants. Verse 25 falls within a section (5:21–33) where Paul draws an extended analogy between the marriage relationship and the relationship between Christ and the church. Just before this verse, wives are called to submit to their husbands "as to the Lord" (v. 22), and the passage as a whole presents marriage as a living picture of the gospel relationship between Christ and his people.
Theologically, this verse elevates the calling of a husband far beyond cultural expectations of authority or headship common in the ancient world. Rather than emphasizing a hus
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