Here we enter upon a new section of the epistle to the Ephesians, and a most wonderful one. The apostle's theme now is the Christian home, more especially, first, the relation of husband and wife according to the mind of God. But interwoven with the homely, practical teaching about the marriage bond, and the reciprocal obligations of husband and wife, there is a wondrous strand of lustrous golden doctrine, revealing the relationship of Christ to the church, His bride. No doubt because "the two shall be one. flesh" the conception of the Head and the Body is all along mingled into that of the Husband and the Wife. He carries both similitudes side by side, and steps from the one over to the other, and back again, at will.¹

      He begins with the wife; for the wife is the dominant factor in the home. She is the real home-maker. What she is, that the home is. Her disposition and character strikes the key-note of the home. (Note how Peter also addresses the wife first in his teaching on the Christian home: 1 Pet. 3:1-8). And the first thing God asks of the wife is that she take the place of subjection toward her husband. This is His will. This is the order of the Christian home, as God would have it. It is not indeed that she should be a mere servant (as is the case in many heathen lands)--that is safeguarded against in the following teaching to husbands. "When God made the woman," said an ancient sage, "He did not take her from the man's feet, as though she were to be his slave; nor from his head, as though she were to rule over him; but from his side, that she might be a companion and a partner to him all his life." But His wise and loving arrangement is this: "Wives be in subjection unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife Christ also is the head of the church, being himself the savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so let the wives also be to their husbands in everything." (Eph. 5:22-24.)

      Now he turns to the husband--and in connection with the admonition to husbands he utters marvellous things concerning Christ and His church. "Husbands love your wives." How? To what extent and measure? True love has nothing [47] to do with measures; but the standard he sets before them is the love of Christ for His church. This love had its manifestation in the past; is active in the present; and looks forward to the completion of its work in the future. In the past--"He loved the church and gave himself up for it." The atonement has wide and far-reaching application; but in its most specific purpose Christ died for His church, that He might purchase it for Himself with His own blood. (Acts 20:28.) Was ever such dowry given, such price paid for anything? In the present that love has set itself the task of perfecting in holiness the church which He has cleansed "by the washing of water with the word." For the future--the triumph of this love in that future day of glory--when His work of sanctification is finished, is that He "might present the church to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish." Not till that is accomplished will He be satisfied. (Comp. Jude 24; 1 Thess. 3:13.) Then will the final nuptials be celebrated, when "the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And it was given unto her that she should array herself in fine linen, bright and pure: for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints." (Rev. 19:7, 8.) And then begins the eternal fellowship, in the closest of all possible bonds, of Jesus Christ the Lord and the church, His Bride, His Wife. Thenceforward, wherever He is there is she (1 Thess. 4:17); whatever He does, she does with Him. If the Son of God goes forth to war, she follows in His train (Rev. 19:14; 17:14). If He judges the world, she also participates (1 Cor. 6:2, 3). If He sits down in His throne (Matt. 25:31) she sits down with Him (Rev. 3:21); if He shepherds the nations with His rod of iron, she takes part with Him in this reign (Rev. 2:26, 27). "Forever with the Lord"--that sums up her destiny and her glory.

      Now the apostle comes down to earth again, and to the humble, homely everyday life, and the relation of husband and wife. "Even so ought husbands also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his own wife loveth himself: for no man ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it." And here he again refers to the perfect standard and ideal of wedded love: "even as Christ also the church; because we are members of his body." (Eph. 5:28-30.) The husband and wife, the head and the body--these conceptions are so near akin that they coalesce, and blend together in one picture. So then, if I am "in Christ," a member of His body, the church, am I as dear to Him as any part of his body would be to a man? That is something to think on. [48]

      Finally he refers to the original pattern of wedlock--that of the first man and the first woman; and the great pronouncement of their Creator: "For this cause [i. e. because, as Adam said, she was flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones] shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife; and the two shall become one flesh."--"This mystery is great," he adds; "but I speak [most especially] in regard of Christ and of the church." The mystery of the union of man and wife the greater mystery of the union of Christ and His church. We could trace the foreshadowing of the latter in the former. For as God from the first foresaw Eve in Adam, so He foresaw the church in Christ (Eph. 1:4, 11). And as God caused "a deep sleep to fall upon Adam," and from his opened side took that of which He builded the woman--did not a deep sleep also fall upon the last Adam, and from His wounded side, as it were, sprang this last and most wondrous handiwork of God--the church of the living God? And, as a man leaves his father and mother to cleave to his wife--did not this last Adam leave the courts of glory above and His Father's home, and come down to woo and win His bride, the church? And she is His, as He is hers, for ever. There may come a time, when His meditorial work is finished, and the Son shall give up the kingdom to God even the Father--when conceivably He might renounce His humanity and human relationship and return to the Divine estate with the Father which He held before the world was; but like the Hebrew servant, He shall "plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children," and for her sake choose for ever to remain in his station, to be subject and subordinate, as glorified Man, to the Father, for ever. (Exod. 21:5, 6.)

      But lest in contemplation of such marvellous and transcendent revelation we might forget the common, humble application to the daily life, Paul adds--"Nevertheless do ye also severally love each one his own wife even as himself; and let the wife see that she fear [i. e. reverence, as in Psalm 45:11] her husband."

      Wives, husbands--then children, fathers; then servants, and masters; for the gospel of Christ and the grace of God must enter into all the relationships of life. Children are to be obedient to their parents, "in the Lord"--that is with reference to Him, and in accordance with His will. He refers here to the fifth commandment of the decalog--not because Christians are under the law of the Ten Commandments, but as a side-light to the gospel teaching; and calls attention to the fact that it is "the first commandment with promise." [49] The promise spoken of is "that it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth." Even in the course of nature, a child that has learned obedience in the home will obey the laws of God and man in after life, and will be spared the heartbreaks and tragedy that befall the lawless. And for this as well as certain other reasons, other things being equal, his life is likely to be a long and blessed one. God sees to that. Fathers, on the other hand must take heed to avoid what might provoke just resentment and anger in children's hearts--such as unkind, hard, arbitrary, unjust treatment of them; for this may have very serious consequences in days to come. The spirit of the gospel is the divine safeguard, designed to prevent such error and failure on the part of parents. Servants (bond-servants, slaves) are to do their work and perform their service to their masters as unto Christ--for whatever a Christian does in any position or relationship of life in which he may be found--as unto Christ he does it. "Whatsoever ye do," he says to the Colossians, "work heartily, as unto the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that from the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: ye serve the Lord Christ" (Col. 3:22, 23). And whatsoever good thing, or good piece of work, he may do the Lord will recompense. This immeasurably exalts and ennobles the slave's lot and labor. "He that was called in the Lord being a bondman, is the Lord's freedman; likewise he that was called being free, is Christ's bondservant." (1 Cor. 7:22.) Thus does the grace of God level all things. (Comp. Jas. 1:9, 10.) Christian masters likewise are to be controlled by the gracious spirit that breathes in the gospel of Christ; and they are bidden to remember that He who is Master of both the slaves and their masters is in heaven, and with him there is no respect of persons. (Eph. 6:5-9.) What respect for the slave's person, what consideration for his life and welfare, would follow from this teaching? And would it not also, of itself, ultimately lead to an entire abandonment of all iniquitous social arrangements and institutions? For the spirit of the gospel does undermine all injustices, though they may have been sanctioned by long established human laws and customs.

[LOE 47-51]