| Geneva Study Bible {14} So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. (14) Another argument: every man loves himself, even by nature: therefore he strives against nature that does not love his wife. He proves the conclusion, first by the mystical knitting of Christ and the Church together, and then by the ordinance of God, who says that man and wife are as one, that is, not to be divided. People's New Testament 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. The church is the Bride of the Lamb (Re 21:9), but it is also Christ's body (1Co 10:16 12:27 Eph 4:12). He that loveth his wife loveth himself. As he loved his body, so every husband ought to love her who by the mystery of the marriage tie has become bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh (Ge 2:23). Wesley's Notes 5:28 As their own bodies - That is, as themselves. He that loveth his wife loveth himself - Which is not a sin, but an indisputable duty. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 28. Translate, "So ought husbands also (thus the oldest manuscripts read) to love their own (compare Note, see on [2372]Eph 5:22) wives as their own bodies." He that loveth his wife loveth himself-So there is the same love and the same union of body between Christ and the Church (Eph 5:30, 32). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 5:22-33 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. | 
